


Like a Stone in the Snow

by JayBreak



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Accidental Incest, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Incest, Kidnapping, R plus L does not equal J, Stockholm Syndrome, hidden identity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-24
Updated: 2015-08-15
Packaged: 2018-03-25 12:22:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3810247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayBreak/pseuds/JayBreak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sansa stark perishes the day she is born. Her family mourns the loss of a life that never had a chance to be. </p><p>Alayne Baelish's earliest memories are of the orphanage in the Vale where she was abandoned when she was a month old and resided until she was adopted at the age of 4 by a man she comes to call her father.</p><p>Modern AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is the first story I'm posting here, because I have recently become a little obsessed with the ASOIAF fandom, especially Sansa Stark and everything to do with her. This is an AU set in a modern day Westeros. I don't know the geography as well as I should though, so if anything seems funky, don't be afraid to point it out to me. That shouldn't really be an issue in this chapter though. I don't know how realistic or believable this will turn out to be, but I couldn't get this idea out of my head, and I knew I just had to write it. I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> warnings: I'm going to add warnings to this as I go along, because I'm not quite sure where my muse will take me yet. For this particular chapter, I don't there is any warnings. If there is anything that anyone finds uncomfortable when they read it, please tell me and I will add a warning.

**NED**

Ned hurried down the halls of Winterfell, grateful for his intimate knowledge of his family’s ancestral home. As he got closer to their bedroom, he began to hear his wife’s anguished cries and increased his pace. 

This was all his fault.

He burst through the doors of the bedroom and was greeted by the sight of his beautiful cat, sweaty, and red, tears streaming down her face as she gripped the sheets and screamed. The two midwives they had hired were frantic, trying to both help and comfort her at the same time.

“Push Mrs. Stark! I know it hurts, but I need you to push!”

Ned was at her side at an instant, taking her hand into his. “Cat, it’s okay, I’m here, and everything is fine. It’s all going to be alright. You just have to keep pushing.”

“Ned,” Cat turned to face him, something akin to relief washing across her features, but not replacing the pain. “Where is Robb? Is he alright?”

“He’s fine. Nan took him back to his room, he’s safe” he hesitated before adding, “Jon is safe too.”

Cat cried out again, whether in pain or exasperation, he couldn’t tell.

“But don’t think about that right now. The boys are safe. Just focus on our little girl. Focus on her and yourself,” he lifted her hand up to his lips and pressed a gentle kiss to it, “I need for you to both be okay Cat.”

“Oh Ned, I’m so sorry. I should have arranged to have her at the hospital like you wanted. I’m so stubborn and—“

“Shhh,” Ned gently quieted his wife, “stop stressing yourself out,” he wiped wisps of her auburn hair out of her face, “You can get through this, I know you can.”

“She’s crowning!” one of the midwives exclaimed and cat squeezed Ned’s hand so tightly he thought she might break it off.

“That’s it Cat, we’re almost there! Just a few more pushes and then you can hold our daughter. She’s gonna be beautiful Cat, just like you.”

Tears still streamed down Cat’s face, but she squeezed Ned’s hand once more and began to push with a new resolve.

Ned didn’t know how much time passed, but before he knew it, Cat gave out a final cry of exertion and the midwives cheered.

“She’s out! A beautiful baby girl just like you thought.”

Ned was grinning so big he thought that his face would split in half. He grabbed Cat’s face and kissed her soundly. “We have a daughter!”

Cat smiled weakly back at him before turning her attentions to the midwives, who had been cutting the umbilical cord. “Let me hold her. Before you wash her, let me hold her.”

There was a pregnant pause, bathing the room in silence, and Ned finally realized that something was very wrong.

The baby had yet to make a sound.

The midwives looked at each other nervously, one clutching the child close to her chest.

“Mrs. Stark…” the other began, as her colleague quietly hurried out of the room, bundling the child in a blanket as she went.

“Where is she taking my baby?! What’s wrong with my daughter?! I need to see my baby!” Cat was beginning to get hysterical but Ned could feel nothing but a dull numbness, and hear nothing but a roaring in his ears.

“Mrs. Stark, calm yourself please. You are still weak, please calm down.”

“I WANT TO SEE MY DAUGHTER RIGHT NOW! BRING MY BABY BACK TO ME!”

“Is she dead?” 

It took Ned a second to realize that it had been him that had spoken those words.

There was another silent pause and then Cat starting bawling.

“Oh my baby, my baby, my baby!” Ned snapped back to his senses and pulled his wife close to him, trying to comfort her as best as he could.

“I’m terribly sorry Mr. and Mrs. Stark. The child was already… there was nothing that we could have done.”

This statement brought no comfort to Cat and her cries intensified.

“Can we see her?” Ned whispered. “So that we can say goodbye?”

The midwife hesitated. “I think… it’s best if you don’t. She had… there was a… birth defect. It must have been overlooked. It wasn’t… I don’t think it would do your wife any good to look at her right now.”

Cat’s wailing increased to a level he did not think possible and he silently agreed with the midwife.

“Oh Ned, our daughter, our beautiful daughter!”

Ned pulled her closer to him, unsure of what he could say to make it better.

Their daughter was dead.

“I just wanted to give you another child! I wanted Robb to have a sister, a real sibling. I wanted two children.”

A cold pool of dread fills Ned’s stomach when he realizes that his wife’s distress is caused in part, or heightened by his decisions about Jon.

He had known of course, in some part of his mind.

He had known the first day he brought Jon home, and admitted about his indiscretion to his wife, She had been furious at him rightly so, but she had also been furious at Jon, an innocent child who could choose his parents no more than anyone could.

He understood her anger of course, understood her bitterness. He was surprised and grateful to this day that she hadn’t divorced him over it. She almost did.  
Jon’s mother Wylla had died shortly after giving birth to him, but she had lived long enough to write Ned’s name on the birth certificate.

He had been incredulous at first, when he received the call, but then it all started coming back to him.

He had been in the Stormlands on business with Robert, and he and Cat had been fighting before he left. Robert took him out for drinks to cheer him up, because alcohol was Robert’s answer to everything, and before he knew it, he was waking up the next morning with a woman in his bed who was decidedly not his wife.

He had been furious at himself.

His first instinct had been to confess to Cat, to tell her everything, but Robert had talked him out of it. He told him that it was just one night, it didn’t mean anything; he didn’t have to ruin his marriage over it. And then he had returned North and Cat had told him that she was one month pregnant with Robb and his mind had been made up. 

That decision came back to bite him in the ass nine months later.

There had been paternity tests of course, Cat insisted, and all they served to do was make her colder towards him and angrier as they confirmed that he wasn’t the honest and honorable husband that he had promised her he would be.

His decision to keep Jon had almost been the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Wylla had no family, very few friends, and barely anything to her name. If Ned had signed away his parental rights like Cat had wanted him to, then Jon would have been taken by the state, and he couldn’t let that happen. Not to his son.

Cat had raged and cried and threatened to leave with Robb, but he had stood firm.

Fortunately, she decided to stay, for Robb’s sake, she icily informed him. But she moved all of her things out of their bedroom and stayed in a guest bedroom on the other side of Winterfell.

For a while, that was their marriage. They had very little interaction that didn’t involve Robb, and it killed him, but he respected her wishes.

The boys grew up very close, despite Cat’s best efforts to prevent it, and her iciness towards him also began to melt. When the boys were two, Cat moved back into the master bedroom with him. By the time they were three, he and Cat had begun to have sex again, and he finally felt like his marriage was on the way back to what it used to be. He had his wife, and he had his sons. He was happy.

A few months after that, Cat informed him she wanted to try for another child. He had been surprised but excited at first, it was only as her reasoning for another child began to seep through that he got a little worried.

“Robb needs a sibling.”

“Robb has a sibling,” he informed her gently, but the glare she sent him was enough to make him flinch.

“A real sibling. We need to make Robb a sibling Ned. I want another child. I want two children.” 

He had been concerned, but he had never been good at saying no to cat, so they started trying for another child, and very soon afterwards, they found out that Cat was pregnant again.

That led them to where they were today: devastated, broken, and still less that second child Cat had so desperately wanted.

Ned looked into his wife’s bright blue eyes with a new determination. “She’s still Robb’s sister, she’s still our child Cat. We may never get to hold her, or watch her grow, but she will always be our child, and we will always love her,” he declared fiercely.

Cat sniffed back her tears emboldened by her husband’s words. “Sansa.” She whispered. “I wanted to call her Sansa.”

“Sansa Stark. We will never forget her”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*  



	2. The Right Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Little Alayne arrives in Gulltown Group Home for Girls under mysterious circumstances.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for the response after the first chapter! It was great to see some feedback!  
> This chapter is not getting into the action yet, just setting the scene a bit more, but I thought it was important for the narrative. I considered doing it as a flashback but I had too much that I wanted to say. I also ultimately made the decision to tell this chapter through the eyes of a periphery character, an OC that I created, instead of a young Alayne. This was mostly because I am terrible at writing from the point of view of young children but partly to get a different perspective.  
> The bulk of this chapter is set about 4 years after the prologue, but there is a flashback in italics.  
> All mistakes are mine.

**TARLA**

Tarla rolled her eyes as she picked up yet another wayward sock from the mess of toys and books on the floor and tossed it into the laundry basket. People who complained about boys being messy had obviously never had to clean up after little girls.

Though, she supposed she couldn’t really complain. _These_ little girls weren’t half as messy as she knew that she and her sisters had been. She’d really gained a newfound appreciation for her mother. She’d have to call her later and thank her.

Tarla collected the last bundle of dirty clothes from the foot of one of the beds and took them over to the laundry basket, before stopping to survey the room, ensuring that she hadn’t missed anything.

Seven little beds, all messy and unmade, waiting for her to come back after she’d put the first load in the washing machine, various items protruding out from underneath them, all except one. The bed by the window was the smallest but it was perfectly made, comforter and pillow straightened and aligned, not a thing out of place, just like the tiny little girl who slept in it.

Alayne was always the tidiest.

After working at Gulltown’s Group Home for girls for almost ten years, Tarla had seen all sorts of girls walk in and out of those doors, with all sorts of stories and all sorts of personalities, but none quite like Alayne.

She was a small girl, of only four, but you could hardly tell by the way she behaved, always so proper and polite, never running wild or behaving unruly like her peers. She was a quiet child but also a very lonely one.

Tarla tried not to get attached to the girls; they came and went so quickly, and she was only the cleaning lady, but it was hard. She spent most of her day at the group home, she knew all of the girls by name, and remembered each one that had entered the doors while she’d worked there, even the ones that had only stayed for a few days.

But Alayne… there was something about Alayne, that made Tarla want to weep for her, made her want to gather that little girl up in her arms and protect her.

She remembered the day that Alayne had first been brought the group home.

_It’d been a long day, she was tired and annoyed, and one of the girls had started a food fight at dinner, which made a huge mess for her to clean, so she was there much later than usual, and all she could think about was getting in her car, driving back to her shitty apartment, pouring herself a nice big glass of wine and settling down to watch some TV._

_The last thing she needed was somebody banging on the door like it was the end of the world._

_Old Ms. Garner, the woman who ran the home, had been in her office when the banging on the door began, so Tarla had gone to open it herself._

_The person on the other side of the door was banging insistently and loudly, obviously unaware of or ignoring their doorbell._

_Tarla angrily pulled the door open, ready to berate the asshole who thought it was a good idea to make such a racket in the middle of the night at a place where little girls live, and was confronted with the sight of a woman with unruly red curls and a wild look in her eye clutching a baby to her chest.The woman looked very young, maybe even younger than Tarla, barely a woman at all. But they were almost always young._

_“Please,” the woman exclaimed, a look of relief evident as she saw Tarla, “please take her.”_

_Tarla was at a loss. She had yet to be faced with an experience like this. Usually Ms. Garner dealt with all the new girls._

_“Um…ah…” Tarla floundered, “…I think I need to get Ms. Garner. You can come inside and wait if you like Ms…?”_

_The woman seemed to pay no attention to what she said._

_“Please take her, please I can’t take care of her anymore, I tried but I can’t,” the young woman was becoming frantic, “she rarely gets sick and she’s had all the shots she needs for her age, I promise she has! And she takes formula so it’ll be fine. I just can’t do this anymore!”_

_Tarla became increasingly worried. “Miss… how old is your baby?” They had taken in many babies before, the story of a young mother who got in over her head was not a new one as far as the girls of Gulltown group home went, but this baby seemed younger than they usually were. Usually the really young ones were taken to hospitals, and then the state found suitable homes for them as soon as possible. There was something about this situation that felt very off._

_“She’s a month old; she’s just small for her age. Please, just take her,” she held the small sleeping babe in her arms out towards Tarla, and Tarla unconsciously took a step back._

_“I’m going to get Ms. Garner. I’m just the cleaner; I’m not qualified to deal with this. There’s paperwork that needs to be done and-“_

_“No! No, I don’t want to do all of that. I just want to give you my baby. Isn’t it you job to take her?!”_

_Tarla remained firm. “I’m going to get Ms. Garner. Please come in and take a seat Miss. It’s cold out. I wouldn’t want you or the baby to get sick.”_

_In that instant, something changed in the young woman’s eyes, in her expression, and in her entire demeanor. A sort of calm came over her expression, the franticness from moments ago gone without a trace, and she looked directly into Tarla’s eyes and spoke clearly and plainly._

_“I’m going to leave this baby with you now. Her name is Alayne.”_

_Before Tarla could fully comprehend what was going on, she found the baby being unceremoniously shoved into her arms, and she reacted quickly, holding her tightly so as not to drop her._

_“See to it that she goes to the right home” and with those last words, the woman turned her back on Tarla and her child and fled._

Tarla had never been able to get that night out of her memory, and she remembered every time she looked at the sweet little red head girl.

It had been a huge mess of paperwork for Ms. Garner to deal with too, but eventually they sorted things out and it was determined that Alayne would stay there until a suitable home could be found.

At the time, they assumed that this would be something that wouldn’t take more than a few months.

Babies tended to be taken in or adopted rather quickly, as many of the couples who came to the home looking for a child, wanted a child that they could raise completely as their own. Many of the girls at the group home had complicated and tragic pasts, and not many people were willing to deal with the baggage that came with that.

Babies were easier. Especially babies who had no known family, nobody to swoop in and decide that they wanted to raise them after all like Alayne.

But all of the families who came in considering adopting her, changed their minds at the last minute, and chose another child instead.

It had baffled Ms. Garner at first. Alayne was a healthy baby, if a little small for her age, and the unique circumstances in which she had come to them also made her uniquely alone in the world, and uniquely suited to be completely adopted into a new family, with no ties to her past.

But nobody wanted Alayne. Not when she was a baby, and not at any other time as the years past.

Girls came and went from the Gulltown group home, but only little Alayne could say that she had lived there almost all her life.

Tarla sighed to herself as she took the dirty laundry to the washing machine.

_See to it that she goes to the right home_

She wondered what the right home was, for a girl like Alayne, who she imagined would be loved by and adapt to any family who adopted her.

If she had the means, she may have adopted Alayne herself, but she knew that was ridiculous. There was barely enough room in her tiny apartment for her, let alone another person. And this job was enough to keep her a roof over her head and food on her table, but little else. And she already had her siblings to consider; she chipped in as much as she could to try and help her parents with them. She had seven younger sisters and three younger brothers, the youngest only twelve, and keeping themselves afloat had always been a struggle for her family.

No, she didn’t have the means necessary to take care of a little girl. And she doubted that she had the skills to raise one either.

After loading and starting the washing machine, Tarla headed back down to the first floor of the house. When Tarla arrived at work this morning, Ms. Garner had asked her to stop by in her office when she had time, and she supposed now was as good a time as any. She was done with her first few tasks for the day, and the next thing she would have to tackle would be cleaning the girls’ room, which she knew could take a while.

The door to the office was open, so she only knocked lightly on it to get the old woman’s attention as she walked inside.

Ms. Garner was the sort of person that Tarla imagined a typical grandmother was like. She hadn’t ever known either of her grandmother’s, so she didn’t have much of a basis of comparison, but Ms. Garner seemed to fit the role pretty well.

Her grey hair was always held in a loose bun, her eyes always crinkled like she was smiling, and she was always ready and willing to bring comfort to any of the girls who needed it.

Tarla didn’t know much about Ms. Garner’s past, except that she had been widowed at a fairly early age, and had no children of her own. She used the money that was left to her after her husband’s death to open the group home, and it had been a safe haven for little girls ever since.

Many of the girls that they took in came from families who couldn’t afford to take care of them, families who abused them, or from parents who were negligent or addicts or criminals, but Ms. Garner took care of all of them with little questions asked.

Many of the girls who came and went often returned once they were adults, and making their own way in the world to thank Ms. Garner. Tarla had seen it happen often throughout the years, but it had never surprised her.

Ms. Garner had a way of finding girls who were in seemingly impossible situations, and making helping them a very possible reality.

Tarla herself had been one of those girls in a way. Ms. Garner had hired her after she dropped out of high school when she was sixteen. School had never been her forte, and college had never seemed to be an option, so she thought that she would be more use to her family if she was making money. Even back then, her parents had more children than they could afford, but they always worked and fought so hard to do the best that they could.

Unfortunately, not many people were willing to hire an unqualified, inexperienced teenager, and those that were, weren’t willing to pay her anything that could help her family at all.

The job offer from Ms. Garner had saved her.

Once when Tarla had been younger, her father had been out of work for a while and he state had taken her and her sister’s away temporarily. She and the other girls were sent to the Gulltown group home. They had only been there a week, as her parents had fought the state tooth and nail to get them back, and her father had found another job, but it definitely left an impression on her.

When she had been looking for work, the group home, and Ms. Garner’s kindness kept coming back to her, and so she decided to throw caution to the wind and ask if Ms. Garner had a position for her.

She had pretty much been willing to do anything that was needed of her, and definitely wasn’t expecting to make bank doing it, but Ms. Garner had gone above and beyond.

Before Tarla, Ms. Garner had done all the simple housekeeping duties herself, as many of the girls were young and although she encouraged them to tidy up after themselves, there was a lot they couldn’t do. So she offered Tarla a position as a cleaner cum housekeeper and the salary was very generous.

She definitely wasn’t making tons of extra cash each month, but Ms. Garner paid her decently above minimum wage for a position that required no education, qualifications and very little expertise. It was enough that she was able to rent her own place after a few years and pay for all of her own things, and lessen the burden on her parents, and that was more than she could ever ask for.

“You wanted to see me Ms. G?”

Ms. Garner gave her a warm smile, “Yes, how has your morning been Tarla?”

Tarla shrugged, “Pretty typical. It’s oddly silent around here. Where are the girls?”

“Rowena took them to the museum. I thought it would be a nice trip for them.”

Rowena was a new hire, who generally came in to do activities with the girls, or to take them places. As the home expanded, Ms. Garner was able to hire more people and do more nice things for all the girls. This was really great, after it being just her and Tarla for so long.

“Oh that is nice. Did you need me to do something while they were gone?”

“Yes, some adoption paperwork just came through for one of the girls. This has been in the works for a while, but the paperwork went through a lot more quickly than I expected, so I’m not as prepared for it as I usually am. I need you to start cleaning up her area, and packing up her stuff so that everything is ready by she comes back from the trip with Rowena. She’s being picked up tonight.”

“Tonight?!” Tarla couldn’t hide her surprise, “That is very short notice. Which girl was adopted?”

Currently there were only two girls at the home that were actively available for adoption and not just fostering, as many of the others still had family members out there and complicated situations.

It had to be either Missy, a precocious girl of 6 whose parents had died in a tragic car accident a year ago, or Alayne.

Ms. Garner gave her a sad smile. “It’s seems that little Alayne is finally leaving us.”

_See to it that she goes to the right home_

“Alayne?” Tarla forced herself to smile even though there was a feeling in the pit of her stomach that she couldn’t quite explain. “She’s going to be so excited. What’s her lucky new family like?”

Here, Ms. Garner showed a rare frown. “Well… it’s not so much a new family as it is a new father. Alayne is being adopted by a single gentleman who lives over in the fingers. He has no wife but has always wanted a child. Mr. Baelish I believe his name is.”

Considering the rigorous process and background checks required for their girls to be adopted, it was highly irregular for them to be adopted by anything but married couples who had been together for at least a couple of years and who had a relatively decent income.

If they were adopted by single women, it was generally after being fostered by them for a significant period of time.

It was practically unheard of for them to be adopted by a single man.

“No wife? That’s… not our usual kind of adopter.”

“Yes, I know but… he came highly recommended by several of our funders. All of his paperwork was approved and promoted at the state level, and several wealthy donors spoke out on his behalf. He passed all of our background checks with flying colors. He’s a respected man in the vale, and makes a handsome living. Alayne would have a wonderful life with him.”

Tarla was still skeptical.

“Those things have never swayed you before.”

Ms. Garner shook her head good naturedly. “Of course not. But they did maybe make me consider him as a candidate in the first place. But in the end, I gave the decision to Alayne. He’s had supervised visits with her and me every Saturday for the past two months and Alayne adores him. She longs for a family so much… who am I to deny her one she wants just because it may not be a traditional one?”

“I had no idea that Alayne had been visiting a potential adopter.”

“Well I wasn’t sure that it would go anywhere at first. It was only on their last visit that he made his decision to formally adopt her. That’s why I didn’t think all the paperwork would be through this quickly.”

Tarla finally identified what she was feeling as bitter-sweet. She was ecstatic that Alayne was finally being adopted, would finally have a family, but at the same time, she would miss seeing the sweet little girl.

Some of the girls who were adopted by families who lived near Gulltown came back to visit every so often, but the fingers was significantly far enough away, and Alayne was so young, that it was likely she wouldn’t be visiting any time soon.

_See to it that she goes to the right home_

Would this Baelish guy provide the right home for Alayne?

She supposed that it would be prejudiced of her to assume that just because he was unmarried he wouldn’t be able to provide an adequate and flourishing environment for the little girl to grow in.

Ms. Garner seemed to sense her mixed feelings.

“You know, I always have to perform check ins after one of the girls is adopted. After the first month, the sixth month and the first year. You could tag along for Alayne’s visits if you like.”

Tarla gave her a grateful smile. “That would be nice Ms. G.”

It certainly gave her a modicum of comfort to know that she could still see the girl, at least a few more times to make sure that she was settling in. That she had gone to the right home.

“I suppose I’ll go and get Alayne’s stuff ready then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you guys think? Feedback is greatly appreciated. I currently do not have a beta, so feel free to correct any mistakes you see and I will edit it.  
> I intended for this chapter to be a lot shorter, about the same length as the prologue, but apparently i can't write from the point of view of an OC without creating a complicated backstory, and I couldn't help but weave some of that backstory into her narrative, which made this longer. Tarla will pop up again later in the story, but likely not as a POV character.  
> After this chapter, the majority of the story will be told through Jon and Alayne POV's, with the occaisional POV from other important characters, and most of those will be longer than this chapter.  
> I aim to update this story weekly (biweekly if absolutely necessary, but I hope not), however I have several exams and finals in the next couple of weeks, so I will not be able to establish a consistent updating schedule until they are over. When my exams are over, I will likely choose a day that I will use to upload a chapter each week.
> 
> Tell me what you thought, question me, start a discussion, critique me. Any feedback is welcome!


	3. College Graduate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jon closes a door on one part of his life and prepares to open the next one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next part is here! I'm actually pleasantly surprised at myself. I'm not usually this quick. But I suppose this chapter was born out of my procrastination while studying for my finals. The next chapter probably won't be out until around the middle of next week. And then after that I'll be able to develop a more consistent schedule because I'll be done with the semester.
> 
> In this one we finally get to see Jon! Mostly just exposition and seeing how he's grown and his relationship with his family and other characters. This took me a little longer than it should have because I suck at dialogue and there was a decent amount of it in here, but it's done now.
> 
> The next one will be Alayne. I'm so excited.
> 
> This chapter occurs about 14 years after the last one.  
> I mostly kept the age differences the same as the books, but i did alter a little to make it work for the story.  
> For reference the ages right now are:  
> Jon/Robb- 22, Alayne- 18, Arya- 15, Bran- 14, Rickon- 9
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

**JON**

“And I now present to you… Wintertown University’s Graduating Class!”

There was a deafening roar of cheers and screams as hundreds of graduation caps flew into the air. Jon’s brother Robb turned to face him and enveloped him in a hug.

“We finally made it man!” he yelled and Jon laughed in reply.

“We’re real adults now!”

Looking back at his memories from their four years at Wintertown, it was very bitter sweet to realize that it was all over now. On the one hand, he was relieved to finally be closing this door of his life to open the next one, on the other hand he would miss the routine he had gotten used to, the friends he had made, and the professors that had helped and shaped him.

But he knew it had all been leading up to this moment, to this ceremony, and now it was over.

As the ceremony came to the close, the students began milling into the audience to convene with their families and friends. Jon and Robb pushed through the crowd, trying to find where their family was.

Catelyn spotted them first, and hurried over to throw her arms around Robb and pull him into a tight hug.

“There’s my college grad!” She kissed both his cheeks, “I’m so proud of you!”

Robb laughed and jokingly wiped his cheeks, “Mom, I’m a man now. You can’t kiss me in public.”

Catelyn rolled her eyes and gave him another tight squeeze. “Well you’ll always be my little boy,”

Jon smiled awkwardly at Catelyn’s display of affection towards Robb and complete disregard of his presence, grateful when more of the family finally pushed through the crowd and met up with them.

“Jon! We saw you on the big screen when you walked across the stage!” Rickon exclaimed as he barreled himself into Jon’s arms.

Jon laughed and picked his little brother up, “Did you really?”

“Yeah and Robb too! It was so cool!”

Arya rolled her eyes. “Everyone was shown on the big screen dummy.”

Rickon’s reply was to stick his tongue out at her and Jon laughed at his siblings antics again.

Robb, having finally extricated himself from his mother’s arms, ruffled Rickon’s hair.

“I bet it was awesome buddy”

Their father Ned finally joined the group of Starks, pushing their brother Bran’s wheelchair in front of him.

“Congratulations boys,” Ned grinned, patting them both on the back affectionately. “I’m so proud of you both.”

Jon smiled back at him, “Thanks Dad!”

“I can’t wait until I graduate university” Bran lamented. Robb grinned down at him.

“You gotta get through high school first Bran”

“High school is so boring,” Arya groaned “I’m not even going to bother with university. That will probably suck too.”

“You most certainly will be going to university young lady,” Catelyn scolded.

“Dad says I don’t have to! He says it’s _my_ choice!”

Catelyn gave her husband a pointed look and he looked away from her sheepishly.

“I said you don’t have to decide _now_ Arya. I’m sure you’ll feel differently in a couple of years.”

“I won’t.”

Catelyn began to reply once again but Jon decided to interrupt before this could turn into a fight. He knew how his sister and step mother could get into it sometimes.

“Arya has plenty of time to think about those things, and I’m sure whatever decision she makes will be the right one for her.” Jon ruffled Arya’s hair affectionately and ignored the withering look that Catelyn was giving him.

“And Anyway,” Robb interjected jokingly “Today is all about _us_.”

 “Right it is!” Ned intoned, “And there are a lot of people waiting to see you guys back at the house, so I think we should start heading over.”

A lot of their family had come to Winterfell for the graduation, although they had only been able to get tickets for the actual ceremony for their immediate family, given that there were so many of them. But their uncle Benjen had driven down a couple of days ago and their aunt Lyanna had flown in from Essos where she’d been travelling. Catelyn’s brother and father had come up from the Riverlands too, and her sister Lysa had come from the Vale with her son Robin.

They had even more of a full house than usual, and Jon knew that the family had been planning them some kind of party for after the ceremony.

“Let’s get going then,” Catelyn conceded.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The house was bursting at the seams with friends and family, just like Jon had known that it would be. He was quickly growing tired of hearing the obligatory congratulations and giving back standard replies. But he knew that he should just be grateful that all of these people came out here for his graduation.

Although more people came for Robb really.

Jon awkwardly nodded at Catelyn’s brother Edmure who stared back silently, as he walked past him out of the kitchen and into the main hall.

Catelyn’s side of the family never knew what to say to him, or how to treat him. Generally, they didn’t say much at all, and Jon supposed he preferred it that way. They were never outwardly rude to him, but it seemed that when they saw him they saw the same thing that Catelyn did.

A living reminder of her husband’s infidelity.

Jon can’t remember how old he was when he found out the full truth about his mother. He knows he must have been pretty young.

He knew from Nan that as a baby he had referred to Catelyn as “mommy” at first, because that was what Robb called her, and that was her name in his tiny mind, but she had made it very clear very quickly that he was not supposed to call her that, and she was not his mother.

As a toddler, he learned that he wasn’t supposed to call her Cat either, as that nickname was reserved for people close to her, and so he began to solely refer to her as Catelyn, difficult as it was for him to pronounce as a child.

He asked his dad about his real mom constantly after that, but it was a few years before he finally learned the whole story. He didn’t know how to process the information at first, but he eventually came to terms with it. But it was still always awkward when one of the younger siblings reached the age where they asked why Jon didn’t call Catelyn mom. Rickon had just asked a few years ago.

Sometimes Jon wondered what his life would have been like if his mom hadn’t died when he was born. He imagined what she would have been like, and how nice it would have been to actually have a mom. Someone to hold him when he was sick, and wipe away his tears when he was upset, and embarrass him in front of his friends as he grew older.

He reckons that it would have been pretty nice.

But he also doesn’t know if he ever would have gotten to meet his dad, if his mom hadn’t died. And then he wouldn’t have known his siblings. He wouldn’t have Robb as a best friend, or Arya looking up to him, or the library trips he took with Bran or teaching Rickon how to play soccer. He also wouldn’t have his dad, who never treated him differently from any of the others, and always supported him in whatever he wanted to do.

And he isn’t sure that he would trade any of that.

He sees Robb talking to their dad and Catelyn and her sister Lysa by the refreshment table, and he tries to avoid eye contact and walk past them, but Robb spots him easily.

“Jon!” He could almost feel the relief radiating off his brother as he grabbed his arm and literally pulled him into the conversation. Jon gave Robb a pleading look but he just looked back at him unsympathetically.

_If I have to deal with this then so do you._

“I was just telling Aunt Lysa about our future plans.”

Jon noticed the slight change in Catelyn’s expression when Robb said _our_ plans. He knew that she wasn’t exactly ecstatic that Jon and Robb still made all of their decisions together. He thinks that she hoped they would grow out of it, but they only grew closer. In high school they both applied to all the same colleges, despite being interested in studying very different things, and they ultimately both made the decision to stay close to home for their undergraduate years, even though Wintertown University was a lot smaller than some of the others they had considered. It meant that they could still live at home and work and save money for later.

“Yes, I hear that you two are going to King’s Landing,” Lysa said.

Jon nodded. “Yeah, Robb and I both got accepted to the graduate program there. Him for his MBA and me for my PhD in psychology.”

Jon had been over the moon when he found out that he had been accepted to the PhD program. He also applied to several masters programs, because they were slightly less competitive, but a PhD was his eventual goal, so getting into the program straight away definitely streamlined the process for him a lot.

“King’s Landing is a disgusting city,” Lysa sneered, “The streets are full of disease and the people are full of corruption. It was terrible trying to raise my poor little Robin there. I moved back to the Vale as soon as I could.” The ‘ _after my husband died_ ’ was silent, but they all knew that she wanted to say it.

Lysa Arryn was a very odd and disconcerting woman, and Jon had always been secretly thankful that she wasn’t _his_ Aunt.

“Well I’m sure that it’s very different if you’re not trying to raise a family there Lysa,” Ned stated, “King’s Landing is probably heaven for two college guys like Robb and Jon. There are lots of things going on there.”

“And the graduate programs there are great,” Robb added.

“Wintertown also has a good MBA program Robb.” Catelyn stated and Robb sighed. Jon knew that he’d had this argument with his mom several times already. “And if you stayed close again, you could still live here, and you could intern with your father.”

“I interned with dad every summer for the past four years mom. I need to get some other experience, or people are gonna claim nepotism when he hires me,” Robb joked. “And what better place to gain business experience than the capital city? There’s practically a multimillion business on every corner.”

Robb had known pretty much his whole life that he wanted to work for their family company, Stark Industries, and eventually take over their dad’s position as CEO. Their dad and Catelyn had encouraged him every step of the way, and Robb had never even really considered doing anything else, especially after getting his undergraduate business degree. He loved business in a way Jon never really thought was possible. He thought people only studied business because it was practical, but he had been proved very wrong after seeing Robb’s excitement after learning about seemingly boring business practices.

Jon hadn’t been as sure about what he wanted to do. He didn’t declare as a psychology major until halfway through his second year. But now he was glad that he did.

“It really will be good for him to make his own name for a while and live away from the nest,” Ned agreed. “It’ll be good for both of them.”

At this, Catelyn turned to face Jon, her expression unreadable. “What made you decide on King’s Landing University? Oldtown has a better psychology program.”

Jon knew that Catelyn thought that all he ever did was follow Robb around, and he wasn’t sure that anything he could say would make her change her mind. She didn’t understand that Robb and Jon followed each other around. They made all of their decisions together purposefully because they were best friends as well as brothers.

“Oldtown does have a great program,” Jon conceded, “But King’s landing is a bigger city. There are more opportunities for me to do research internships. Plus in Oldtown I would have to compete with all of the medical school students from the Citadel for internships.”

“And besides, Jon and I are practically conjoined twins,” Robb joked, “We had to decide on a place that was great for both of us.”

Ned and Jon laughed at Robb’s joke, but Catelyn and Lysa were a lot less amused.

“It’s not healthy for the two of you to be so attached,” Lysa sneered.

Jon didn’t really think she should be talking to them about unhealthy attachments. He had seen the way that she treated her son.

“They’re brothers! It’s perfectly healthy Lysa”

“Ned, Lysa’s just saying that they’re men now, they can’t follow each other everywhere,” Catelyn naturally stepped in and defended her sister.

“They’re men, exactly. They can make their own decisions about their future.”

Jon was increasingly beginning to wish he could find a way to exit this conversation. He glared at Robb for dragging him into it and his brother just gave him a shrug and a sheepish smile.

“But Robb doesn’t know anybody in King’s Landing Ned. It would be different if Lysa still lived there, because then at least he would have family close…”

“Robert lives in King’s Landing now, I’m sure Robb might even be able to intern for-…” Ned trailed off as he noticed Catelyn glaring at him and realized his mistake. It was an open secret in their house that Catelyn hated Ned’s best friend Robert. So he didn’t mention him very often.

“We know some people there,” Robb hurriedly steered the conversation away from Robert Baratheon, “Theon moved there a couple of years ago. It’ll be like the three musketeers reunited again.”

Considering how much Catelyn disliked Theon, this was probably not this best direction to steer the conversation in. Catelyn blamed Theon for pretty much every time Robb had gotten into trouble as a teen, and honestly she was mostly right. She had been so relieved when the Iron Islander had decided to leave the North for the capital.

Theon was the one subject that Catelyn and Jon agreed on, not that he would ever admit that. He found the older man obnoxious and arrogant, but he knew that Robb thought he was great. So he generally just went along with it when Theon convinced Robb to do some crazy things. But he wasn’t exactly looking forward to dealing with him again on a regular basis. Theon was a lot of work.

“And I’m sure they’ll meet lots of great new people there too,” Ned continued before his wife could say anything about Theon.

“King’s landing is just so far… Robb won’t be able to visit too often.”

“It’s always so hard for a mother to be away from her children for so long,” Lysa said sagely, “It’ll be like you have three children instead of four.”

Catelyn’s mouth settled into a hard line, and Jon knew before she spoke what she was going to say.

“I have five children, not four.”

An awkward silence settled over their group.

They all knew that Catelyn was definitely not referring to Jon as her fifth child.

Things always got very awkward very fast when Sansa was brought up.

Jon still remembered being four and being excited for a new sibling that never came. It had been a difficult time for everyone in their house. Robb and Jon didn’t quite understand what had happened, didn’t understand that their sister had been born but was now gone forever.

Catelyn had been despondent and had fallen into a deep depression for months. Ned hadn’t been much better.

A few years later, when Catelyn found out she was pregnant with Arya, she didn’t deal with it very well. Robb and Jon had been confused but Ned explained that it just reminded her about losing Sansa all over again. Luckily the pregnancy had been healthy and when Arya was born she had been treasured by the whole family. Catelyn dealt with her next two pregnancies a lot better too, but she still always slightly reverted into her depression about Sansa upon discovering that she was expecting.

After Bran had fallen out of a tree a few years ago, Catelyn had been inconsolable. At first, the doctors didn’t know if he would ever wake up from his coma, and she didn’t know if she could deal with losing another child. When he woke up they had all been so thankful, even after finding out that he may never walk again. It hard been a hard time, but they all got through it, the memory of Sansa and the fact that they could have lost someone else never straying too far from their minds.

They all tried to avoid mention of Sansa now, knowing that it would only upset Catelyn.

“Oh well, of course,” Lysa realized her mistake and tried to save it, “I just meant you would only have the three children living in the house.”

“Aunt Lysa where is Robin? I don’t think I’ve seen him yet today.” Robb swooped in to salvage the situation.

“Oh, that’s right! I have to take you to him, of course. My little sweetrobin was so excited to see his cousin Robb.” Lysa grabbed Robb’s arm and pulled him away, presumably to where Robin was sat with Rickon and Bran, likely annoying them.

Ned wrapped his arms around his wife and murmured comforting things to her, and Jon took that as his sign to leave, so he slipped away and made his way towards the stairs.

He wondered how long he could stay in his room before somebody called him back down.

He didn’t even make it to the stairs before somebody called for him.

“Jon! There you are I’ve been looking all over for you!”

Jon turned around to see his uncle Benjen walking towards him and he grinned. Uncle Benjen was his favorite relative, not including his dad and siblings.

“Uncle Ben!” He hugged the older man who ruffled his hair in response.

“How does it feel to be a college grad?”

“Not that different actually. Especially knowing that I still have at least 5 more years of school left before I can start my career.”

Benjen shook his head. “I still don’t understand how you’re okay with being in school for that long, but more power to you man.”

Benjen had joined the army pretty much straight out of high school. Everyone in the family thought that he would serve for the minimum required years and then decide to do something else, but he surprised them all by staying in the army to this day.

“I like psychology,” Jon shrugged, “It’s the only thing I want to do. And if that means being in school forever, then I guess I’m going to be in school forever.”

“You and Robb are both going down to KLU right?”

“Yeah. But Robb will be finished a lot earlier than I will.” Robb’s MBA program was only 2 years, and even though he wanted to work in King’s Landing for about a year afterwards, he would still be returning to the North a few years before Jon so that he could work for their dad.

Jon was sure that Catelyn must have been happy about that.

“I’ll never understand the draw of academics,” Benjen joked.

“That’s what I said uncle Ben!” Arya came out of nowhere and joined their conversation, causing Jon to laugh.

“You shouldn’t have brought that up today Arya. You know your mom doesn’t like it.”

“I don’t care,” Arya scowled, “They can’t make me go to University if I don’t want to. I only have three more years left of high school. I don’t know why they think I’m going to change my mind.”

“That’s right Arya, they can’t,” Uncle Benjen winked at her, “But don’t let them know that I agree with you. Or then I’ll never hear the end of it either.”

Arya shot Uncle Benjen a grateful grin, always happy to have somebody on her side.

“Anyway kids, I need to go and find Lyanna. She has some gifts for you guys from Lys that she needs me to help her carry from the car. I didn’t dare ask her what they were.” Uncle Benjen gave them a jaunty wave before disappearing back into the crowd.

“You look nice Arya,” Jon teased, gesturing to the grey dress she wore and Arya pulled a face.

“I hate it,” she moaned, “I begged mom to let me wear jeans but she wouldn’t budge.”

Jon had immediately known when he had seen her that the dress had been picked out by Catelyn. It was knee length with short sleeves and a scooped neck, and it went out at the waist. Overall, it was pretty but sensible looking, which definitely screamed Catelyn more than Arya. The only time Jon had ever seen Arya wear dresses by choice was for costume parties.

“You really do look nice though. Grey suits you.”

“I would have looked nice in grey jeans too.” Arya sighed. “I’m just sick of her always telling me what to do and how to dress. It’s like she’s trying to mold me into something I’m not.”

“You know why she’s like that Arya,” Jon noted quietly.

Catelyn’s relationship to Arya had always been complicated. Because she was the only daughter who survived, Catelyn definitely tried to influence Arya the most out of all the children, convinced that they should be the closest, and that they should have this special bond and spend all of their time together. Unfortunately, they just didn’t have a lot in common. Arya had always been a wild child, and had little interest in many of the activities that Catelyn wanted them to do together like shopping and getting their nails done.

“I know,” Arya mumbled, “But it’s annoying.”

Out of the siblings who had been born after Sansa, Arya probably felt her absence the most, constantly aware that she shouldn’t have been the only girl. That it would have been different if Sansa was alive.

Jon gave Arya’s shoulder a squeeze. “Your mom loves you. And she’s only doing what she thinks is best. She doesn’t make you wear dresses to spite you.”

No matter how he himself felt about Catelyn, he could never deny that she loved all of his siblings fiercely, and would never do anything to purposefully upset them.

Arya sighed again. “I suppose wearing dresses every once in a while isn’t so bad. And grey does look great on me.”

Jon laughed and slung his arm around her shoulder. “That’s the spirit!”

“Oh Jon, it’s going to suck when you and Robb go to King’s Landing! Why can’t you stay in the North?”

“We have to step away a bit so that we can grow on our own a bit more Arya. But we’re going to come back here to visit as often as possible. And of course you’ll always be welcome to come and stay at our place in king’s Landing.”

Robb and Jon had already found an apartment in King’s Landing, and to Jon’s chagrin they would be sharing with Theon. It was a four bedroom apartment so there would also be a guest room for anyone who wanted to come and visit.

“I’m going to be there as often as mom and dad will let me,” Arya declared. “You and Robb won’t make me go to bed before midnight.”

Jon laughed again and began to steer Arya to the kitchen. “Come on; let’s see if I can sneak you a tiny bit of champagne so that we can celebrate properly.”

Arya’s huge smile was her only reply to that proposition.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Ygritte rolled off him panting and grinning. “So that’s what a college graduate fucks like.”

Jon laughed. “Was it any better than usual?”

Ygritte seemed to consider the question for a moment. “No, not really. I’m pretty disappointed actually. What did you even go to University for if you didn’t learn how to fuck better?”

Jon snorted, “Liar. It was great.”

Ygritte laughed and lay down on her back, her red hair fanning out beneath her. “You’re so modest.”

“Don’t need to be,” Jon leaned over and pressed a kiss against her collarbone while trailing a hand up her bare stomach and over her breasts, “When you always tell me how great I am.”

Ygritte turned to face him, weaving a hand in his hair and tugging a curl. “I always tell you that you know nothing.”

“But we’ve already established that you’re a liar.”

Ygritte laughed again and pushed him away from her.

“I never lie Stark.” She sat up and leaned over to her bedside table, grabbing a cigarette and a lighter. She offered Jon a cigarette but he simply shook his head and she shrugged. She knew he never smoked but always offered him one anyway.

“So what’s next for you college grad?” Ygritte asked as she lit up.

“King’s Landing for graduate school.”

Ygritte snorted again. “I don’t know why you would choose to do even _more_ school.”

Jon grinned. “I’m weird. You should have guessed that by now. Why else would I have been sleeping with you for so long?” he joked.

Jon rarely ever felt as relaxed as when he was with Ygritte. The only person that it was easier for him to talk to was Robb, and they had spent practically every moment of their lives together.

Jon had met Ygritte his sophomore year of college because she was best friends with his friend Sam’s girlfriend Gilly. They had dated for over year, and she had been the first girlfriend Jon had was actually serious about, that he actually loved.

Unfortunately, the relationship had eventually disintegrated when they realized that although they loved each other and had a lot in common, they both wanted very different things romantically and from life in general.

Jon eventually wanted to settle down and get married and start a family, and Ygritte didn’t see any of those things in her near future. They had decided that they were better off ending things and just becoming friends.

But they never quite managed to stop having sex with each other.

Now they had settled into a comfortable friends with benefits arrangement that worked a lot better than Jon ever thought that it would. In the beginning, he had wanted to stop completely, because he wasn’t sure that he could completely separate his romantic feelings from the sex.

But over time it got easier, and his feelings for Ygritte faded into pure friendship and he was able to objectively admit that they had a really great sex life and there was no point of stopping it until one of them entered a serious relationship with somebody else.

He had come over to Ygritte’s place as soon as the last of the guests from the graduation celebration had left.

“The question should be why _I_ sleep with _you_.”

Jon winked out her. “Obviously because I’m great with my mouth.”

Ygritte laughed. “Again with the modesty.” She took another inhale of her cigarette and then turned to face Jon. “Sam proposed to Gilly.”

Jon raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Really? I didn’t know that.”

“It was right after the graduation ceremony. I think they’re going to tell everyone tomorrow. But you know Gilly, she was so excited she texted me right away.”

“Well that’s great! Is she following him to Oldtown then?”

Sam had been accepted into medical school at the citadel, which was the best medical school in Westeros. Jon knew that he had been worried about doing the long distance thing with Gilly, considering how far away Oldtown was from the north.

“I suppose she will. She was considering looking for work down there anyway. Now that they’re getting married she’s probably made up her mind about it.”

“I’m happy for them,” Jon stated. He knew that a lot of people considered 22 to young to be married, but he knew that Gilly and Sam had pretty much known they wanted to marry each other when they started dating 4 years ago, and this engagement really took a longer time to happen than he expected.

“You should see the ring, it’s huge! That must have put a dent in his bank account.”

“Is all this engagement talk a hint that you want me to propose?” Jon teased, winking at her exaggeratedly.

Ygritte rolled her eyes and shoved him. “You wish Stark.”

“I’m going to miss this when I go to King’s Landing.”

“The sex or my company?”

Jon grinned. “Both.”

“When do you and the hotter Stark head down to King’s Landing anyway?”

Jon rolled his eyes at Ygritte’s nickname for Robb. She had started calling Robb the hotter Stark when they’d been dating because she knew it annoyed Jon. She never stopped, even though it didn’t really bother him anymore.

“In about a month. School starts in two but we want to get down there early and get settled in, set stuff up at the apartment and find work and stuff.”

“A month?” Ygritte put out her cigarette and lay back down, turning to face Jon. “So we only have a month to fuck each other as much as possible?”

Jon smirked at her. “I guess we better start now then.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


	4. Perfect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alayne prepares for her father's return and for her future.

**Alayne**

Alayne Baelish straightened out the two place mats on the table once again, making sure that they were completely lined up with the edge of the table and with each other.

Everything had to be perfect for father.

Each place mat was a shiny black color, as father believed most décor should be, but they were edged with trimmed white lace—Alayne’s own personal touch.

Atop each place mat sat a plain white plate, spotlessly clean—Alayne had washed each one twice, just to be sure—a wine glass filled with dark red liquid, (Although only father’s contained wine, Alayne’s was sparkling juice. Father didn’t let her drink.) And two sets of shiny silver cutlery.

In the center of the table, there was a vase filled with freshly picked wildflowers from their garden, blue and yellow and purple and orange, adding a splash of color to the overall setting. It looked perfect.

The food was still in the kitchen, keeping warm on the stove, and Alayne frantically checked the time on her watch again.

Father would be back soon.

She hurried into the kitchen to turn off the heat and place the food in the elegant black and white dishing bowls that she had picked out last year. Father always took her opinion into consideration when buying new things for the house, especially the kitchen.

The kitchen was her second favorite room in the house, after her bedroom. All of the appliances were top of the line, sleek and dark, and the countertops were marble. And now the cupboards were filled with her carefully selected and ornately decorated kitchenware. She was so lucky.

Alayne walked back into the dining area and placed the dishing bowls on the table, ready to be served for father when he arrived. She had cooked steak and potatoes with steamed vegetables, his favorite meal, like she always did when he was returning after being in the capital for a while.

Father had been gone for almost three weeks now. Alayne always got antsy when he left for so long. She missed him

She wiped her hands on her frilly apron, before unlacing it and hanging it back up on its hook in the kitchen.

Father should be arriving in about fifteen minutes. She needed to change.

Alayne hurried out of the kitchen and up the stairs to go and change, passing by the immaculate living room as she did so. She had spent the morning cleaning the entire house from top to bottom, ensuring that everything was perfect before father’s arrival.

Alayne loved this house.

It was definitely not the biggest house around, but it was great for her and father.

The first floor of the house was mostly open plan, with large kitchen, dining and living areas, all decorated in sleek black and white, with one splash of color for accent in each area. Father had let Alayne pick out the accents when they redecorated a few years ago.

There was also a half bathroom on the first floor.

Upstairs was father’s study, which Alayne was rarely allowed to enter in case she disturbed him while he was working, three more bathrooms and the bedrooms.

There were three bedrooms upstairs: Father’s, Alayne’s and the guest room. Although in all the time that Alayne had lived there, the guest room had never been used. They had never had guests that stayed for more than a couple of hours, and even those were few and far between. Father didn’t like to conduct business meetings in their home, and he didn’t have any family other than Alayne, so there was nobody to come and visit.

The fingers were one of the least populated areas in the Vale, and so they had very few neighbors, the nearest being almost a 10 minute drive away. Their house was right near the coast, which was nice during the summertime though.

Alayne remembered it being hard at first, after coming from a home with many other little girls to go to it only being her and father. She had gotten pretty lonely.

But it was better now that she was used to it. Alayne knew that father was the only person she needed. She was only lonely now when he was gone. And he had been gone for so long this time.

Alayne had always known that she had been adopted; known that father wasn’t really her father. She still remembered the awkward early days when he would visit her at the group home, and she would call him Mr. Baelish. On his last visit, when he informed her that he had decided to adopt her, he told her to call him father, and she had done so ever since.

Alayne had been ecstatic to be adopted, over the moon to finally be wanted, and she counted her blessings each day that father had been the one to adopt her. He was sometimes strict, and very particular about the house, and her education, and her behavior, but he also loved her and cared for her more than anyone else ever had.

Alayne always knew deep down that she would never be able to pay the unimaginable kindness that father had done for her when he adopted her, but she tried every day, by always trying to be the perfect daughter, always try to do right by father and make him proud.

Not only had father saved her from life as an orphan when nobody else would, but their life together here at the fingers was also wonderful and perfect.

He was the perfect father; it was the least that she could do to try to be the perfect daughter too.

She missed him so much.

But he would be back soon.

When father had first adopted her, most of his businesses were located in and operated from the Vale and he did most of his work from his home office. If he ever had to leave for work, it was never for more than a couple of days, and he called in an old friend of his, Ms. Mordane to watch over Alayne. Now he considered Alayne finally old enough to trust her to stay by herself.

But as she grew older, father also did better and better at business, and started spending more time in King’s Landing. At first he would just spend weekends in King’s Landing, and weekdays in the Vale, but recently he was spending much more time in King’s Landing and therefore less at home in the Vale with Alayne.

Alayne knew that he received a big promotion and was very happy for him, but wished that his work didn’t take him so far away.

Alayne hurried into her bedroom to get ready. She loved her bedroom. It was the most colorful room in the house; father allowed her to redecorate every year.

This year, Alayne’s theme was birds. She had figurines hanging from her ceiling, paintings of birds that she had done on the walls, pictures she had taken of birds in frames all over the room, and even the quilt that she hand-made for her bed was patterned with little gold birds.

Alayne had many hobbies including painting, cooking, writing and photography, (it was easy to develop hobbies when you spent so much time in one place) but her favorite was easily sewing.

She made pillowcases and bedding and quilts and even most of her own clothes. Father had gotten her a fancy sewing machine for her name day two years ago, which made it even easier and better for her to complete all of her little projects. He always did things like that; things that he knew would make her so happy.

Alayne couldn’t remember being anything but happy since father adopted her.

She picked out a blue sundress from her closet, handmade of course, and patterned with intricate white flowers at the hem. Father always said that this one matched her eyes.

Alayne sat down in front of her dressing table mirror, admiring the photos of her and father that were taped around the mirror for a few seconds. She had one from each nameday since father had adopted her, fourteen in total, and she loved the way that she looked increasingly happy in each picture.

Father was the best thing that ever happened to her.

She took her hair out of the long thick braid that she had put it in while she was cooking, and allowed it to cascade to her waist, brushing out the long dark waves.

Her red roots were starting to show again. She would have to touch them up soon.

Alayne was twelve the first time that she colored her hair with the cheap hair dye she had managed to convince Ms. Mordane to buy for her.

In the group home sometimes girls would tease her about being a redhead, but father had always loved her hair, tugging on her pigtails when she was young and calling her his redheaded little princess.

But her hair was also a constant remind of something that she wanted to forget.

Alayne didn’t know much about her mother, she was too young to remember anything of her life before the group home; even her memories of the group home were growing fuzzy.

But she remembered constantly asking their housekeeper about her mother, after Ms. Garner accidentally let it slip that Tarla had been the only one there when she had been placed in the home.

Tarla had never wanted to answer any of her questions, but she did tell her that her mother was a red head too.

That was something that Alayne used to take pride in; her only connection with the woman she would never know; the woman who gave birth to her.

But as she grew older, and learned more about the world, she began to feel more and more that she didn’t want to know that woman at all.

She now knew that she must have been abandoned, that her mother left her there because she didn’t want her. Why would she want to have a connection with a woman like that? Why would she want to look like a woman who never even wanted her?

Alayne would much rather look like father, have a connection with him.

There was not much she could do about that except dyeing her hair the same black color as his.

Father had been bewildered when he first returned and saw what she had done to her hair, but once she had explained her reasoning to him, he had seemed touched. He seemed proud of her.

Alayne had continued to dye her hair ever since.

Luckily her eyebrows had always been a dark brownish color rather than red, so it didn’t clash terribly.

Alayne heard the sounds of a car coming up the drive way.

Father had returned.

Alayne got up and smoothed down her dress then hurried down the stairs to greet father.

She was waiting in front of the door with a big smile on her face as he opened it, and immediately threw herself into his arms for a tight hug.

“I missed you so much father!”

Father laughed good naturedly as he returned her hug briefly.

“I missed you too sweetling.” He pressed a light kiss on her forehead and then began to move towards the dining table, removing his jacket as he did so. “I smell something delicious!”

Alayne hung father’s coat up in the coat closet before hurrying after him to the table.

“Oh I cooked your favorite for you father. Just the way you like it!”

“Thank you Alayne darling. How lucky I am to have the most thoughtful daughter in the world.” Father took his seat at the head of the table and immediately began to tuck into his meal.

Alayne recalled that Ms. Garner would always make the girls pray to the seven before each meal, and before bed. As a girl, she had prayed to the seven every night that her mother would come back for her and take her home.

Father didn’t believe in any gods. Alayne didn’t either anymore.

She was glad now, that they didn’t exist to make her prayer come true. Or she would have never been adopted by father.

Alayne beamed at his praise before taking her seat at the opposite side of the table and dishing her own food.

“How was your flight father?”

“It was alright. As good as a commercial flight can be I suppose.”

Father owned many small businesses in the Vale and in King’s landing, but he also worked as the financial director for Casterly Corporation, one of the largest businesses in the seven kingdoms, which was owned by the Lannister’s, one of the oldest families.

Sometimes when he did business deals for them, they allowed him to use the Lannister private jet. Alayne had never been in it, but it sounded so wonderful and luxurious.

“One day, we’ll be able to buy our own private jet father,” Alayne stated matter of factly.

Father gave her a small smile and took a sip of his wine. “Yes we will Alayne.”

It was silent for a while, as the both enjoyed the meal that Alayne had cooked, but then Alayne finally spoke the words that had been on the tip of her tongue since he had stepped into the house.

“I received my letters today.”

At that, father looked up at her, interest apparent in his eyes. “Oh? And what’s the verdict?”

Alayne couldn’t help the wide grin that spread across her face as she said, “I got accepted into the Eyrie Institute.”

The Eyrie Institute was the best university in the Vale, and it was father’s alma mater and his first choice for her college education.

Alayne had been homeschooled ever since she was adopted. In the early years, father selected, directed and oversaw all of her studies, ensuring that she received an above average education. In later years, Ms. Mordane oversaw her education while father was out of time, but father still made the lesson plans.

Alayne was well versed in Calculus, Literature, History and geography—both of Westeros and Essos, Science, Economics, and also basic government. She was also almost fluent in Braavosi and knew a conversational amount of High Valyrian.

Basically, along with her many hobbies and talents, father had made sure that she was the perfect University applicant.

Paired with her near perfect score on the WSUEE (Westerosi Standardized University Entrance Examination), it would have been more of a surprise if she hadn’t been accepted.

“Congratulations Sweetling! I’m so proud of you.”

Alayne waited for a beat before she spoke again. “I also got accepted into King’s Landing University.”

Father was silent for a second, clearly caught off guard, which was something that Alayne barely ever saw. “I didn’t know that you had applied to KLU.”

The look he gave her was accusatory and Alayne looked down in guilt.

“I didn’t want to tell you in case I didn’t get in,” she muttered.

The Eyrie Institute was a great school, but KLU was her dream school. However, as a resident of the Vale, she had a higher chance of being accepted into the Eyrie, so she didn’t want to let father know that she didn’t agree with him on something until she was sure that it was even a possibility.

“You want to go to University in King’s Landing?”

“Oh more than anything father! It’s all I’ve wanted ever since I visited you there!”

Alayne had only been to King’s landing once, for a weekend when she was thirteen. Ms. Mordane cancelled last minute, and father had been forced to take her with him on his business trip.

She had spent most of the trip locked in father’s penthouse, as he had deemed it unsafe for her to be wondering around king’s landing on her own, and he had been working most of the time, but she was enchanted by what little of the city that she had seen.

Many of the buildings were modern and new and sleek, but much of the history of the great city had been preserved, right down to the magnificent structure of the red keep, which now functioned as both the official Westeros Museum of History. And Alayne loved history more than most other subjects.

King’s Landing was also in an up and coming city for young people, with many new clubs, restaurants and shopping malls popping up that were aimed specifically at college students and young adults.

Alayne hadn’t had much chance to interact with other people her age, and the thought excited her.

Also, considering that he worked in King’s Landing more often than not now, it would also be closer to father.

The Eyrie was not close to the fingers, and even when father was in the Vale, she would have to travel significantly to spend time with him, and she didn’t even have a car yet. Father taught her how to drive, but always stated that she didn’t need a car. This was pretty true. Father ordered all of their groceries to be delivered to the house, and if Alayne needed to go anywhere else she went with father.

“The Eyrie Institute is a wonderful school though,” Father noted carefully.

“Oh but father, King’s Landing is in a much better city. And King’s Landing will have better opportunities for me to get internships in business or politics. It’s where the capitol building is after all, and several of the best businesses in Westeros.”

Father seemed to contemplate this for a second.

In Father’s opinion business, political science or law were the only subjects worth getting a degree in, the only things he thought that Alayne needed in order to get a future job that could help him further their family business. It was all part of the Plan for their future, for them to work together one day, and Alayne would do anything to make that happen, even if those three subjects would not necessarily be her choice of a major afterwards. She knew that in the long run, father knew what was best for her, best for them.

But right now, Alayne knew that KLU was better for her and for them. She just had to convince father of that.

She decide to push ahead with her arguments. She had spent all day planning what to say to him.

“And it will be much easier for me to see you. The new office of Casterly Corporation is so close to the KLU campus, and your penthouse isn’t much further.”

“You truly want to go to KLU sweetling?”

“Yes father.”

“Then I think it’s a good choice.”

Alayne could barely contain her excitement. “Really father?”

“Yes Alayne.”

“Oh thank you!” She jumped off and ran over to give her father a hug. “Thank you so much!”

“You made some wonderful points sweetling. It would be nicer to be closer to you. And I was planning on spending more time than ever in King’s Landing when you went to University. Now we can both just move into the penthouse, and maintain this house so that we can return here in the summers.”

Alayne bit her lip. “You want me to stay in the penthouse with you?”

“Of course sweetling. I’ll turn the guest bedroom into your room. Nobody ever uses it anyway. Where else would you stay?”

“Well…I….I was hoping that I could stay in the dorms,” Alayne muttered timidly.

Father raised an eyebrow and she hurriedly added. “At least for the first year! So that I can get the full college experience.”

Alayne had been looking forward to dorm life more than she would ever admit to father. She loved living with him, and admittedly it was one of the first reasons that she wanted to go to KLU in the first place, so that she could continue to live with him.

If she went to the Eyrie, she would have no choice but to live in dorms, as it was far enough from the fingers to make commuting everyday a hassle.

However, that was her opinion before she met Myranda.

Myranda was a third year student at the Eyrie Institute that father had hired to help Alayne study for the WSUEE, just to ensure that she was going over all of the right material.

She came over twice a week for three months while Alayne was studying for the exam, and these visits occasionally occurred when father was out of town.

Myranda’s personality was as bodacious as her body, and the opinionated girl was definitely a huge culture shock for Alayne, after going so long with only father and Ms. Mordane for company.

The girl had no filter, and often the girls scandalous proclamations made Alayne blush from head to toe and Myranda took a certain delight in teasing the younger girl about how sheltered she was.

Myranda told her things bout college and boys and dorm life in general, that she had never even considered before when thinking about school.

Many of the things she said were outrageous, and Alayne was sure that plenty of them were made up too. She was sure that Myranda just took advantage of her virginal nature to try and scandalize her as much as possible.

There just couldn’t be that many strange things that people could do during sex.

But a lot of the things that she said also got Alayne thinking. She made dorm life sound so exciting, and Alayne wasn’t sure that she wanted to miss out on the opportunity.

It would also be a lot easier for her to make friends if she lived on campus too; one of the things that she was most was worried about. She didn’t have enough experience interacting with people to be confident in her friend making skills. She got along well enough with Myranda after the first couple of sessions when she had come out of her shell a bit more, but Myranda was the kind of girl who seemed like she could talk to anybody.

“A dorm room would be much smaller than the room at the penthouse. And in the first year dorms, you would have to share.”

“I know father, but I think it would be nice, at least for the first year, just so I can get used to the campus. Then I can live at the penthouse with you for the remaining three years.”

Alayne desperately wanted to live in a dorm, but she would understand if father decided that it was not what was best for her, and she would accept his decision.

Father considered her proposition.

“I suppose that I could allow that for the first year.”

Alayne’s face split into a smile once again.

Everything was falling into place. She was so grateful for father, and for everything that he had done for her.

She was so lucky to be adopted by somebody like him, to have him as her father.

He had made everything she wanted possible, and in turn, she would make everything they wanted possible, for him and for her.

She would prove to father than KLU was the right decision for her, for them.

Everything was going to be perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is out a bit later than I planned, sorry about that. The past couple of weeks were a little crazy for me, and then after that episode on sunday, I felt pretty devastated and emotional. It was hard to write about Alayne organizing place settings after watching what was happening to Sansa on the show. But I'm not going to talk about that anymore. 
> 
> This chapter was pretty hard to write because I was never sure if I was getting the tone right. It'd be great to hear how you interpreted my portrayal of Alayne-Petyr's relationship. I'm not sure if I got the exact tone I was going for.
> 
> Next chapter Jon and Alayne finally meet, and it may also have both POV's, so it will probably be longer too. I will try to get it up by next wednesday/thursday, but I will be pretty busy from today until monday night, so I can't make any guarantees right now. Hopefully it'll be up by next weekend at the latest.


	5. Thirsty Thursday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alayne meets her new roommate, and some attractive men.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so late!
> 
> FYI: In my version of modern westeros, 18 is legal to drink and do everything else.

**ALAYNE**

Alayne looked up at KLU’s Visenya House: Freshman dorm for girls and her new home for the next year. All of the dorms at KLU were named after historical Targaryen rulers, in honor of the city’s heritage, and Visenya House was the largest girl’s only dorm.

Alayne had wanted to live in Maegor’s House, which was co-ed, but father had refused.

He insisted that it wasn’t her that he didn’t trust, but rather college aged boys.

Alayne couldn’t really argue with him much. It wasn’t like she had any experience with boys, let alone college aged boys, to say otherwise. Besides, if father thought that it was best for her to stay in an all girls dorm then he was probably right.

Father was usually right.

“Do you have all of your stuff Alayne?” Father questioned and she nodded eagerly.

They had arrived in King’s Landing a little over a week ago and had been staying at the penthouse together. Alayne had set up her bedroom in the penthouse and father had also taken her to buy new things for her dorm room, all of which she had packed neatly into boxes and placed into father’s car this morning, eager to get to the university.

Today was the first day that the dorm would be open for freshman to move in, and then orientation would begin the next day and last through the weekend, with undergraduate classes officially beginning on Monday.

“Let’s get you checked in then.”

They walked through the double doors of the building into the spacious lobby area, which was buzzing with activity. Parents, new students, and student staff all bustled around, trying to sort out room assignments and lug heavy boxes and bags up to their new rooms.

A bubbly girl with almost white blonde hair immediately hurried over to Alayne and her father when she spotted them, a warm smile on her face.

“Hi there! Welcome to Visenya! My name is Daenerys, I’m a senior and a RA here, and I can help you get checked in and sorted out.”

“Daenerys Targaryen?” Alayne blurted out before she could stop herself. Father gave her a sharp look and she immediately looked down in embarrassment.

He had always taught her that maintaining composure around strangers was always important, but she couldn’t help herself.

Although the Westeros had abolished the monarchy and become a democracy centuries ago, and the Targaryen name had faded far from what it once was, from what it once meant, it still meant something to be a Targaryen, to be connected to all of that history, even without the massive amounts of money and political power that used to go with it.

Alayne had studied the Targaryens extensively, it was one of her favorite historical topics, and now she was standing in front of one of the few remaining known Targaryens left in Westeros.

Daenerys gave her a small understanding smile, “That would be me. I guess the name Daenerys is conspicuous enough to give away the last name.”

“Sorry I didn’t mean to be rude. You must get that all the time.”

“It’s quite alright, really. It doesn’t happen too often. Most people really don’t care about Targaryens at all,” she laughed.

Father, clearly becoming impatient with the conversation, asked, “Where will my daughter’s room be? We have a lot of things we need to start moving up there.”

“Oh yes of course! What’s your name, I’ll just check on our list,” Daenerys gestured to the clipboard that she was holding.

“Alayne Baelish.”

Daenerys looked down at the list for a few seconds before her face lit up with a smile again. “Ah, here we are. Alayne Baelish. Room 319. And you’re in my section! Looks like I’m going to be your RA for the year.”

 “Really?” Alayne could barely hide her excitement.

“Looks like it! Today you’ll have a chance to move all of your things in and get to know your roommate. Tomorrow all freshman will be placed in groups with an upperclassman leader, usually your RA, and we’ll show you how to get around campus and let you all get to know each other. On Saturday you will have your individual advising appointment and there will be a couple more events with your group. Sunday we’ll play a huge game of dodge ball with all of the groups going against each other in the morning and then we’ll let you guys rest and prepare the rest of the day. Classes start Monday!”

Daenerys took a breath after her long speech before continuing. “To get to your room just take those elevators over there to the third floor, turn left when you exit and walk down to the end of the hall. You should be able to open it with your ID card, which you should have received in the mail.” She gave Alayne a questioning glance which she answered with a nod. “Perfect! I look forward to getting to know you this year!”

“Thank you so much for all of your help,” Father said politely as he gently steered Alayne towards the elevator.

Her room was easy enough to find following Daenerys’ directions. It was empty except for the provided for furniture when they got there, meaning her roommate was yet to arrive.

The room was more spacious than she had expected, containing two sets of furniture on opposite sides, and a generous amount of room between them.

Each student was provided a twin bed, a dresser, a wardrobe, and a desk and desk chair. The room also had its own bathroom attached to it, which she knew was rare for freshman dorms.

“It’s wonderful father!”

“It’s adequate” He replied, which was possibly the highest compliment she could have expected from him. Father was notoriously picky about living spaces. Going on vacation was a luxurious and rare experience because of it.

After a quick conversation about how best to efficiently get the work done, father headed back down to the car to begin bringing up boxes and Alayne began arranging the furniture the way she preferred.

It took them a few hours to carry up and unpack the majority of her things. All that was left was for Alayne to decorate the walls with the pictures and posters that she had brought.

Father looked at his watch and cursed quietly.

“I’m late for my lunch meeting.” He gave Alayne an apologetic look.

They had arrived fairly early to avoid this, but with so many people using the elevators, brining up all of her things had taken longer than it should have.

“It’s alright father,” Alayne said understandingly, “I’ll be fine here.”

Father gave her an unreadable look before pulling her into a tight hug. “My little mockingbird is all grown up. Flying away from the nest.”

“I’m still going to see you all the time father! We’ll have lunch and I’ll come stay at the penthouse.” They had agreed that although she would spend most weekdays on campus, Alayne would stay at the penthouse most weekends.

“I know sweetling. This is going to be a great chance for you to learn and grow in the world. But you won’t forget everything I’ve taught you.”

Father’s phrasing made it clear that it was a statement, and not a question, but Alayne felt the need to answer it anyway.

“Of course not father.”

“Good.” Father pressed a kiss on her forehead and gave her one last squeeze before making his way to the door of her room. “Call me tomorrow to tell me how you’re settling in.”

“Yes, father.”

And then he was gone, off to his business meeting.

After father left, Alayne set about decorating her side of the room with her pictures and the bright red fairy lights she had bought to match the new quilt she had made, which was black and red and embroidered with dragons to show off her school spirit.

It took her about another hour to get everything sorted, but when she looked around, her room finally felt like it was _hers_ , and it felt cozy and familiar.

She glanced at her watch and saw that it was almost 1:30, and there was still no sign of her roommate.

Check-in was between 9am and 6pm though, so she supposed her roommate could be coming much later. Maybe she had wanted to avoid the crowds of people that she knew would be there mid-afternoon.

Alayne was at a loss of what to do with herself. At home she would have busied herself with housework, or cooking or sewing, but there was none of that here, as she had left her sewing machine at the penthouse, thinking that there wouldn’t be enough space in the dorm room, and she wouldn’t have enough time during the school week anyway.

Instead, she pulled out her laptop and began doing more research about KLU classes and professors. She had already searched almost everything there was to know about the school in the past few weeks, but if she was going to be signing up for classes in two days, she wanted to be sure that she chose the best classes with the best professors.

By the time she glanced at the clock again, Alayne could probably recite the name, subject and teaching ability of every single professor at KLU.

But it was just barely 3pm.

And still no sign of her roommate.

Alayne decided that she may as well settle down to watch a couple episodes of some TV shows. She hadn’t watched too much TV back in the vale, father had discouraged TV watching in excess, but she watched enough that she had some definite favorites.

Alayne adored snarky pop culture reality shows and gritty crime dramas equally as much as each other, but her favorite TV show of all time was a romantic drama called Fool’s Heart.

It was a modern retelling of the story of Florian and Jonquil, and starred two magnetic co-leads as the famous lovers.

The show was only in its first season, but it was already receiving rave reviews from the audience and from critics. She’d read many blogs online that denounced it as ‘sappy, romantic tripe’ but Alayne lapped it all up. She thought the show was great.

It was a bit… _saucier_ than father would usually allow her to watch, so she had only watched it when he was out of town, which meant that she was a couple of episodes behind.

She needed to find out if Jonquil finally realized that Florian was the man who had been sending her roses.

Alayne was nearing the end of the second episode she watched when she finally heard noise outside the door of her room.

She paused the show on her laptop and sat up on her bed, smile placed on her face, ready to greet her new roommate, just as the door opened.

She was surprised when instead of a girl, three guys walked through the door, two carrying several heavy looking boxes and the other carrying several garment bags.

Three tall, attractive guys, all with brown curls and gorgeous eyes.

Alayne felt herself turning red.

“Seven hells,” One of the attractive guys complained, “What does Marg have in these things, rocks?”

One of the other attractive guys, the only one who wasn’t too focused on the weight he was carrying, elbowed him and he looked up finally noticing Alayne’s presence.

He flashed her winning smile.

“Oh hi there! You must be Marg’s new roommate. I’m her brother Loras.”

Alayne felt herself blushing profusely as she stuttered a reply. “A-alayne.”

The attractive guy holding the garment bags also smiled kindly at her as he hung them up in the wardrobe that wasn’t her.

“I’m Willas.”

The other attractive guy placed down the boxes on the empty bed, before walking over to her and offering her his hand to shake. “And I’m Garlan.”

She shook his hand and offered him a weak smile. “Nice to meet you all.”

With their matching curls, eyes, and smiles, they could easily have been a boy band.

Though she supposed they were a bit older than boybanders generally were, as they all seemed to be in their mid or late twenties.

“I want to apologize ahead of time for Margaery,” the one called Loras told her with a good natured wink, “She’s a nightmare to live with.”

“Are you spreading lies about me Loras?”

Alayne tore her eyes away from the three attractive guys and saw that her new roommate had finally entered the room.

She was a very pretty girl, with light brown curls that matched her brothers’ but were much longer and bright eyes. She was dressed in denim shorts and a trendy shirt that showed a lot more skin than father would ever let Alayne show.

“Just letting the poor girl know what to expect for a year with you.”

Margaery rolled her eyes. “Don’t listen to a word they’ve told you, they’re all vicious lies,” she told Alayne with a wink.

“I’m Margaery Tyrell by the way. In case these dummies have been too busy maligning my character to mention that.”

“Alayne Baelish.”

Alayne had heard of the Tyrells of course. The family and made a fortune from their chain of upscale restaurants, The Golden Rose, which had begun in the reach but slowly spread all over Westeros.

Father had always taken her to The Golden Rose in the Vale for special occasions.

“Nice to meet you Alayne. I can already tell that we’re going to be the best of friends!”

Alayne didn’t know how she could tell that when she’d barely said three words to her, but Margaery seemed like the kind of girl who knew those kinds of things.

“So have you boys got any unpacking done, or were you too busy gossiping?”

One of her brothers—Garlan—laughed, “We were barely here for ten seconds before you go up her Marg, I don’t know what you think we could have unpacked in that time.”

“And those boxes were so heavy!” Loras complained. “I need time to recover.”

“Well you have about two seconds because there’s still plenty more boxes to carry up.”

Loras groaned. “I don’t know why you can’t help us with some of the heavier stuff Willas.”

The brother called Willas, gestured at his leg with a smirk. “I can’t do any heavy lifting. Don’t want to strain my leg.”

“Your physical therapist said that your leg was fine like a year ago!” Loras exclaimed.

Willas shrugged. “Better safe than sorry.”

“Stop complaining Loras,” Garlan interjected. “Don’t forget how much stuff we had to help you move in.”

“That was years ago,” Loras muttered.

“Loras goes to KLU too,” Margaery informed Alayne, “He’s a junior communications major and a star on the tennis team.”

“Well I wouldn’t say star…” Willas teased.

“Everyone else would,” Loras replied smugly.

“Garlan and Willas are both old,” Margaery continued, “They finished college centuries ago and both live in Highgarden.”

“I’m 26!” Garlan exclaimed at the same time that Willas indignantly said,

“29 is NOT old!”

Margaery sniggered. “Whatever you say old men. Now go back to the car and bring up the rest of my stuff!”

Her brother’s grumbled but they all left the room to get the rest of Margaery’s things.

“Do you need any help unpacking?” Alayne offered shyly.

“Oh that would be wonderful darling! If you’re not too busy of course.”

“Don’t worry I wasn’t doing anything important,” Alayne hastily explained, “And I finished with my unpacking a while ago.”

Margaery walked over to Alayne’s side of the room examining her décor, “Wow you have some awesome things.” She gently stroked the soft material of Alayne’s KLU quilt. “Is this from the school store?”

“Um… I made it actually.”

“You made it?! Fuck, you’re talented!”

Alayne looked away awkwardly. “Um thanks.”

Margery continued looking through Alayne’s things. She thought that she should have felt like it was a violation of her privacy, but instead she just desperately hoped that the girl liked more of her things, and didn’t think that Alayne was lame.

“Is this your dad?” Margaery held up a Polaroid of Alayne and her father which had been taken on a trip to Braavos a few years ago. They were at the docks and father was giving one of his rare full smiles, instead of the half smirks he generally gave. “He’s a stone cold fox!”

“He’s a _what_?!” Alayne could only imagine the horrified look she gave Margaery at this comment. Myranda had made several inappropriate comments about Alayne’s father, but she had just brushed that off as Myranda being Myranda.

“He’s seriously smoking! Is he single? You have no pictures with your mom.”

Before Alayne could reply to that Margaery’s brown eyes widened and she quickly added.

“Fuck, that was rude. Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. Sometimes my mouth works faster than my brain.”

“Um, it’s alright. Yes he is single.”

Alayne had considered whether or not to bring up her adoption to people she met, and decided that it wasn’t necessary unless it was pertinent to the conversation. She didn’t need to tell near strangers her life story.

Besides, father was her father no matter what.

“Seven hells, how is he single? Aren’t the soccer moms just banging down your door?”

“Father doesn’t date.”

In fact, Alayne couldn’t remember him ever dating. She had mentioned it once, and he had just laughed and told her that she was the only girl he needed in his life, so she left it at that.

She preferred it like that actually.

“That’s a shame,” Margaery sighed, “What a waste of a perfect specimen of a man.”

Alayne wasn’t quite sure what to say next so she shyly admitted. “Your brothers are all very attractive.”

Margaery laughed warmly. “I suppose they are, objectively. I would set you up with one of them if they weren’t all otherwise unavailable. Garlan is married to his childhood sweetheart, Willas is married to his work, and Loras is extremely gay.”

“Oh,” Alayne said, trying not to sound disappointed.

Margaery laughed again. “If any of their situations change, you’ll be the first one I tell.” She winked.

Just then, the door opened again, and the three men they had just been discussing entered carrying more boxes.

“You didn’t even unpack anything Marg!” Loras complained, “Why were you bitching at us before?”

“I have a genuine excuse! I was mingling with my roommate.” She turned to Alayne, “Can I show him the picture?”

“Oh, sure,” Alayne said with slight confusion that melted away as Margaery bounded over to Loras brandishing the Polaroid of Alayne and her father.

“Look at how sexy Alayne’s dad is! Ten out of ten or what?”

Loras appraised the picture for a couple of seconds. “Ten out of ten for sure.”

“Where did you say you were from Alayne? Will your dad be visiting a lot?” Margaery asked eagerly.

“Well I’m from the Vale but father works mainly in king’s landing, and will be living in the city most of the time too.”

“He lives here?” Margaery shrieked, “Is he going to be coming back to visit you today?” She asked hopefully.

“I don’t think so…”

“Is he strictly a ladies’ man? Or…?” Loras asked with a smirk, and Alayne turned a shade of red that she didn’t know was possible.

“Um….”

“Oh stop it you two, you’re traumatizing the poor girl,” Willas chastised.

“Margaery and Loras separately are overwhelming,” Garlan explained, “Margaery and Loras together are impossible. I truly do apologize for what you’re going to have to put up with this year.”

“Don’t listen to a word he’s saying. We’re an acquired taste, but we’re a delicacy,” Loras winked.

“Okay, enough chit chat! These boxes aren’t going to unpack themselves!” Margaery took it upon herself to begin directing her brothers about where to put her things as they unpacked them, and Alayne went over to help them all make the process faster.

Margaery had a lot of things.

A lot of fancy, beautiful, expensive things. And each item had its own story that Margaery was more than willing to share.

All of the Tyrell siblings talked a lot while they unpacked, and Alayne learned a lot about them.

Willas and Garlan both worked in the business side of The Golden Rose, although Willas also cooked sometimes, because it was a passion of his. Loras had gotten into tennis as a way to be busy all the time so that he could avoid his mom trying to set him up on dates before he came out. Margaery had initially wanted to share an apartment with Loras for her first year, but her grandmother had convinced them that they would end up killing each other. Garlan’s wife was called Leonette and they were expecting their first child. Willas had rode horses his whole life, and had injured his leg in a horse riding accident a few years ago. Although while his siblings claimed that it had been cured through surgery and years of intensive physical therapy, Willas insisted he couldn’t help with any of the heavy things because his leg was playing up. Loras apparently had terrible taste in boyfriends, although he vehemently disagreed with this. Margaery had been a cheerleader in high school, and was salutatorian of her graduating class, and prom queen and had been Miss Teen Reach that past year.

She’d reacted in shock when she’d asked Alayne about her high school experience and she told her that she’d been homeschooled. She said didn’t think that homeschooling was a thing that people still actually did.

Alayne liked Margaery a lot, despite their differences. She was kind, and funny, and had an exuberant energy that made Alayne feel more and more at ease as time passed by. She even began to get used to what Margaery and her brothers referred to as her “talk before she thinks” blunt statements, that she frequently blurted out.

It took them a while, but they finally got all of Margaery’s things unpacked and sorted.

“Thank fuck we’re done,” Loras flopped back on Margaery’s bed with an exaggerated sigh.

“Don’t get too comfortable Lor, we’re leaving soon.” Garlan said.

“Are you guys flying back to the Reach tonight?” Alayne asked.

“Not tonight,” Willas replied. “Our flight’s on Saturday. But we need to get back to our hotel to get some rest. We spent all day before we came here shopping with Marg.”

“And remember that you guys all have to help me move into my new apartment tomorrow!” Loras added.

“Or we could let you do it yourself since all you’ve done today is complain about slave labor,” Margaery teased.

“You could never be that cruel to me.”

Willas laughed. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Come on time to leave.” He picked his little brother up easily and dragged him off the bed.

“I thought your leg was playing up!” Loras gave his brother an accusatory glare.

“I’m cured!” Willas exclaimed.

Alayne and all the Tyrell’s except Loras, who continued to glare petulantly, burst out laughing.

There were a few more barbed jokes exchanged, and plans made for the next day during the times that Alayne and Margaery wouldn’t be participating in university sponsored orientation activities before the Tyrell brothers finally all left.

As soon as her brothers were out of the door, Margaery turned to Alayne with a mischievous gleam in her eye. “I thought they would never leave!” She ran over to her newly full dresser and began rifling through it in earnest.

“What are you looking for?” Alayne questioned.

“Bar clothes of course! This may be our only chance to go all weekend, what with all those things the school has planned for us.”

“Bar clothes?”

“Yes, we’re going bar hopping. It’s Thirsty Thursday! What other way would we spend our first official night of college?”

Alayne had just assumed that they would spend it in their room talking to each other more.

“I’ve been asking around about the best bars that grad students go to. I dated undergrad guys when I was in high school. I need me an older man now,” Margaery joked.

Alayne was still barely registering what was going on. She had never been to a bar before. She didn’t think her father would approve.

“Ah, here it is!” Margery pulled a sparkly low cut silver shirt out of the dresser. “This will look great with some dark jeans right?” She didn’t wait for Alayne to answer. “I could pair it with my black boots with the heels too! Man, I’m going to look hot.” She finally turned to Alayne again. “Dress sexy casual. You don’t want to look like you’re trying too hard, but at the same time, you never know who you could meet at these kinds of places.”

Alayne didn’t think she owned anything sexy casual. She didn’t even know what sexy casual was.

Half of the clothes she owned were made up of things that she made herself, and those things tended to be flowery and girly and bright. The other half of the things she owned were smart, monochrome outfits in neutral colors that she wore when she needed to dress up for something, or when she just wanted to match with father. She also had a couple pairs of jeans and t-shirts and sweatshirts thrown in there for when it got cold.

She didn’t think any of those things counted as sexy casual.

Margaery seemed to sense her hesitation, as she offered with an easy smile, “Do you want to borrow something of mine?”

Alayne smiled with relief. “Yes, thank you.”

Margaery spent another minute looking through her clothes before offering up a sheer black shirt. “Wear this with some jeans and you’ll look delicious!” she gushed.

Alayne grabbed a pair of her own grey jeans and both she and Margaery change into her outfits.

The shirt was tighter that it looked when Margaery was holding it, and slightly see through.

“I can’t wear this!” Alayne blushed.

“Sure you can, just wear a black bra!”

“I’m going to wear a black tank top underneath it,” Alayne retorted.

“If you say so,” Margaery sighed. “Do you think I should wear my hair up or down?”

“Down,” Alayne answered, suddenly wondering whether she should take her own her out of the customary braid it was in.

“You should wear you’re hair down too.” Margaery answered the question before she could ask it. “I love your hair by the way. How did you get it to grow so long? And what products do you use?”

Alayne shrugged. She used whatever product father bought at the store usually. “My hair has always been pretty long I suppose. I only trim the edges when they’re split or uneven.”

“You cut your own hair?”

Margaery seemed impressed although Alayne wasn’t sure why, so she simply nodded.

“Wow, it takes about 3 stylists to make mine look like this. Could you do my hair one day?”

“Sure,” Alayne smiled. She had been doing her hair her whole life. She didn’t think it would be too much harder to do somebody else’s.

“Okay, time to stop talking about our hair and start doing it! We still have to put our make-up on too. I don’t want to head into Flea Bottom too late.”

“We’re going to Flea Bottom?” Alayne exclaimed.

“Of course. All of the cheapest bars in King’s Landing are in Flea Bottom. And grad students love cheap bars.”

Alayne bit her lip. She knew for sure that father wouldn’t like her going to flea bottom.

“I’ve heard Flea Bottom can get pretty dangerous…”

“Oh don’t worry, there’s been a big sweep to clean up the streets this past couple of years. The only thing actually dangerous about Flea Bottom now is its reputation.”

Alayne was still unsure, which showed on her face.

“Don’t worry Alayne,” Margaery assured her, “I wouldn’t take a friend somewhere if I didn’t think it was safe.”

“Alright,” Alayne conceded, although she knew that she could never mention this to father.

“Yay!” Her roommate pulled her into an excited hug, and Alayne couldn’t help but laugh.

This would be a new experience for her, but maybe it would be a great one.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Although Margaery had a car, she had insisted that they take a cab to Flea Bottom, as she was determined that they would both be drinking that night.

The bar they’d finally settled on was in a rundown alleyway, and was called The Rusty Keep, but despite all of that, the ambience inside was not what Alayne was expecting.

Their ID’s had been checked at the door by a surly bouncer with a scarred face, and Alayne couldn’t help the excitement that bubbled up in her at using her ID for alcohol for the first time since her eighteenth nameday.

The bar was filled with young adults playing pool and darts and watching sports and drinking beer and having conversations, and the décor was a lot nicer than the outside suggested.

Margaery had immediately dragged her over to the bar and ordered them both fruity drinks that the bartender, a handsome but roguish looking man, insured her were three parts vodka.

The drink was very strong, especially considering that the only alcohol that Alayne had previously had were a few sips of wine that father had allowed her at special occasions.

She decided to sip it very carefully and slowly, although Margaery polished hers off rather quickly while engaging in an animated conversation with the bartender.

They remained sat at the bar for a while, and as the bartender drifted off to serve other customers, Margaery turned her conversation back to Alayne.

“Did you see those guys that just walked in?”

Alayne discreetly turned to the door to try and figure out who Margaery was talking about. Almost immediately she spotted a group of three, fairly cute looking guys who seemed to be in their early twenties.

They were all chatting easily with each other, and one of them splintered off from the group after a few seconds and made a beeline towards a group of girls who were playing darts. The other two continued to talk to each other for a while.

“I call dibs on the redhead one,” Margaery said.

“Are you going to go and talk to him?” Alayne asked.

“I don’t need to, he’s going to come over here.”

“How are you so sure?”

Margaery just smirked and Alayne gave a furtive glance towards them, and sure enough, they were making their way over. She quickly turned back around.

“Maybe they’re just going to the bar,” she reasoned.

Margaery laughed. “They’re not.”

A couple of seconds later, Margaery was proved right, as the two guys stopped directly in front of them.

The redhead was the first to reach them, his dark haired companion trailing a little behind him, a surly look on his face.

The redhead flashed them a winning smile. “Good evening ladies.”

“Hi there,” Margaery purred back.

“I’m Robb, and this is my brother-“

“Are you guys’ twins?” Margaery interrupted with a curious smirk.

Robb laughed. “No, although he wishes. I’m the older one.”

“Barely,” his brother snorted.

“I like older men,” Margaery said innocently, and Robb’s smile grew wider.

Alayne wished she had a notepad and pen. She felt that she could learn more about flirting from Margaery than any TV show she watched. She’d done everything short of flutter her eyelashes. Although she hardly needed to. Alayne was sure that Margaery could have any man she wanted no matter what she did.

“So what brings you girls here tonight?” Robb asked, though by now any pretense that he wasn’t just talking to Margaery had disappeared, as he looked directly at her while he spoke.

“Just exploring the town. Meeting some new people. Having a drink.”

“Can I buy you a drink?” Robb asked boldly and Margaery’s smirk turned into a smile.

“That’s very forward of you.”

“Can I?”

“I’ll tell you what,” Margaery placed her empty glass down on the bar and stood up. “I’ve just had a drink. How about you teach me how to play pool instead?”

“I can do that,” Robb replied, and then he clapped his brother on the back, “And my brother can keep your friend company.” He and his brother seemed to have an intense silent conversation for a couple of seconds before the dark haired man sighed and slumped into the seat that Margaery had just vacated.

“Perfect!” Margaery loop her arms through Robb’s, “Let me know whenever you want to leave girl!” she called out to Alayne as they made their way over to the pool table.

Alayne wanted to leave right now. But she knew she wouldn’t say anything about leaving until Margaery had finished talking to Robb. She wouldn’t want to ruin things for her friend.

The man beside her ordered a beer from the bartender but had yet to say a word to her.

He was much more attractive up close.

What she had deemed as cute from far away, was quite obviously actually very handsome. His dark hair was longer than most guys wore it, but it suited him, and he had beautiful grey eyes and light stubble on his face. He was dressed casually in a flannel shirt, ripped jeans, and converse, which made Alayne feel even more ridiculous in Margaery’s slinky black shirt than she already did.

An awkward silence settled around them.

Alayne sipped at her drink more quickly, and casually glanced over at the pool tables to see how Margaery and Robb were getting along. He was currently stood behind her showing her how to hold the pool cue properly.

Alayne was sure Margaery had been boasting earlier about how wonderful at pool she was. She couldn’t help but laugh into her drink quietly. The girl was good.

The man beside her gave her a furtive glance at the sound of her giggle, and she immediately flushed a little.

Finally, she pulled some courage from the bottom of her glass and swiveled her bar stool around so that she was facing Robb’s brother.

“Hi I’m Alayne,” she stuck her hand out for a handshake and then immediately felt stupid. She considered pulling it back but then decided to stick to her guns.

He stared at her hand a couple of seconds before lifting his own and shaking it.

“Jon,” he replied.

Well. Now they were finally getting somewhere.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, sorry this is so late. I knew what I wanted to happen in this chapter but wasn't sure how to write it. Also I inittially wanted to fit both Alayne and Jon POV's in, but Alayne's POV ended up a lot longer than I expected. I thought it would turn out about 6 pages in word, but it ended up being 16 (single spaced!!!). I just had so much fun writing the tyrell's! I'm considering expanding their role in the story just because I love their dynamic so much.
> 
> Jon's POV will be next, and hopefully will be coming soon.
> 
> One last thing, I have a QUESTION, that I would be really grateful if you guys could answer:  
> Would you prefer shorter chapters (about 3000 words is short for me) and more frequent updates, or do you not mind waiting a little longer for chapters with a little more meat in them? I was considering making a lot of the upcoming chapters have two POV sections, which would make them a lot longer, but also take me longer to write. But with this story I could really do it either way. Let me know what you guys prefer!
> 
> Thanks for reading as always!


	6. Model Behavior

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jon and Alayne have an interesting conversation.

**JON**

Even after being there for almost four weeks now, Jon had still not really gotten used to the heat in King’s Landing.

In the north, it never got hotter than mildly warm, no matter the time of year, but here he felt like he was walking into an oven every time he walked outside.

Other aspects of his life in King’s Landing were beginning to fall into place though.

He and Robb had settled into their apartment nicely, and had each already fallen into their own little routines.

They had both begun reading for their coursework and looking for employment about a week after arriving in King’s Landing.

Robb had been invited to several interviews for paid internships at local businesses, but had yet to select the one that would offer him the best work experience, pay and hours.

Jon had obtained a job as an undergraduate introductory psychology TA, which would not begin until classes started the following week.

He had also met several of the psychology faculty at KLU and began deciding which direction that he wanted to take with his dissertation, although he still had a long while before he officially had to begin actively working on it.

Theon was as much of a pain in the ass as Jon remembered, but he was surprisingly not as bad a roommate as he suspected that he would be. Although he was just as rude, boisterous and messy as Jon expected him to be, and often had questionable visitors at all hours of the night, he held a job at a local advertising agency which kept him busy most of the day, and that worked for Jon just fine.

However, he was certain that once classes began and he had endless amounts of work and studying, he would find Theon’s odd hours less agreeable, and as such he had already taken it upon himself to find a suitable place to study once the semester officially began.

He had a lot more fun exploring King’s Landing with Robb than he initially thought he would, with Theon acting as their unofficial tour guide when he had free time. It was definitely very different from the north and a huge culture shock, but it was undeniably an amazing city.

Around every corner was a part of the city that looked completely different from the one he just left, giving him the impression that he was constantly somewhere foreign, which was more exciting than he would have thought, given his penchant for preferring the familiar.

Despite being the biggest state in Westeros, Jon always had a distinct feeling of familiarity with everyone he met in the north; it seemed that everyone knew everyone. Each new person he met was a friend of a cousin of a spouse of somebody he already knew, or related in some other arbitrary way.

This meant of course, that everyone knew who he was too. Their father was a well known and beloved man in the North, as Stark Industries provided a large portion of the jobs for the people that resided there, so of course everybody knew about the sordid story of his birth too. They all knew from the time he started school as a kid, that he was Ned’s son, but not Catelyn’s.

This was not the case in King’s Landing.

He felt like he was in a sea of strangers every time he stepped out of the door.

But it was strangely comforting to realize that to everyone else he was just another stranger in the crowd, and not Ned Stark’s illegitimate son.

King’s Landing was also filled with a countless amount of restaurants, clubs, stores, cafes, bars and other places of the like.

The place he had found to study was a small 24-hour coffee shop near the campus which had a basement area with several tables and couches. Hopefully it wouldn’t get too busy once classes started up again.

Already students were beginning to trickle into the city of the past week, which he could tell by the sudden increase of people on and around campus.

He was glad that their apartment wasn’t directly on campus itself, but about a 5 minute drive away, which at least meant he wouldn’t be as subjected to the waves of undergrads as he otherwise might have been.

“Move over Stark!”

Jon was pulled out of his reverie as Theon plopped himself down on the couch next to him, turning the TV on in the process, and stretching out his legs.

“Gross, have you showered?” Jon pushed Theon’s feet out of his face as he got up and moved to the other couch.

“Don’t need to,” Theon snorted, “Where’s Robb?”

Since he’d met them, Theon had always called Jon 'Stark' and Robb by his first name. It didn’t really bother Jon. He’d been Robb’s friend first after all.

“At an interview.”

“I told him that he should just come work with me.”

“You say that as if you have the power to hire people. You’re at the bottom of the totem pole Greyjoy.”

“Still, my boss likes me. I have a feeling she’ll be promoting me soon to get me closer to her if you know what I mean,” Theon winked.

“Oh, that’s nasty Theon,” Jon groaned and Theon simply laughed.

“It’s the circle of life. Fucking makes the world go round.”

“I don’t think that’s quite all there is to it.”

“Well you wouldn’t, would you?” Theon rolled his eyes. “Now be quiet you’re interrupting my show.”

Jon turned towards the TV and was unsurprised to see the opening credits for Fool’s Heart on the screen.

“I still can’t believe you enjoy this trash.”

“This is a quality show!” Theon retorted defensively, “The acting is great, the storyline is great, and the lead actress’s tits are out of this world.”

“I’ve seen better.”

“No you haven’t,” Theon snorted.

“It’s just so stupid,” Jon complained. “It’s marketing an unrealistic version of love and relationships to gullible young girls. And keeping the attention of idiots like you with copious nudity.”

“Why do you always talk like a middle aged woman?”

Jon flipped Theon the bird and the Iron Islander simply grinned in response.

Jon had developed an increasingly realistic view of relationships over the past couple of years. He was definitely looking for something long term and hopefully permanent, but he had disillusioned himself about the frilliness that the show represented.

He also found it almost funny that Theon, who had never had a relationship that lasted longer than a week, was such a huge fan.

Theon’s attention had now fully returned to the drama unfolding in front of him on the screen, so Jon stood up and went to the kitchen to grab himself some food.

He had just finished making the most perfect sandwich—three different kinds of meat, four different kinds of cheese, basically heaven—when it was unceremoniously snatched off of his plate.

He turned around to berate Theon only to be faced by his brother munching down on the last five minutes of his life.

“Really Robb?”

“Don’t ‘really Robb’ me! I deserve this sandwich man. You are looking at the newest intern for the Falcon Finance Firm.”

“You got the job?” Jon’s happiness for his brother made him temporarily forget his sandwich.

“Yep! Doesn’t that deserve a sandwich?”

“Not really,” Jon snatched his food back out of his brother’s hands, “But congratulations!”

“Guys, we have to go out tonight and celebrate,” Theon bounded in the kitchen excitement clear on his face.

“Thought you were too busy watching your show?” Jon joked.

“I am never too busy for alcohol. Or women. Or alcohol and Women.”

“We should go out tonight,” Robb agreed. “Drinks are on you Theon! Thanks for volunteering.” He slapped his friend on the back before walking towards his bedroom to change. Jon laughed over Theon’s loud protestations.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

By the time they walked through the door of The Rusty Keep, a cheap bar in Flea Bottom they had discovered the other week, they were all in high spirits, having pre-drank already at their apartment and called a cab to take them out.

Theon spotted a group of girls by the dart boards almost immediately.

“Well looks like I’m playing darts tonight fellas. Don’t wait up for me,” He waggled his eyebrows at them and made a beeline over to the group.

“Theon will always be Theon,” Robb laughed.

“Ten dragons says he strikes out and goes home alone.”

Robb considered for a moment before saying, “I’ll take that bet. For some crazy reason, Theon always convinces girls to go home with him.”

“These ones look smarter than his usual type.”

“Speaking of types, that girl over there is 100% my type.”

Jon glanced over to the bar where his brother was gesturing and saw two very pretty girls sitting and chatting with each other. “Which one?”

“The one with the lighter hair. Jon she is perfect. I think I’m in love. I’m going to marry her.”

Jon rolled his eyes at his brother’s theatrics. Robb had always been a hopeless romantic. Every other girl he met was ‘the one’. Jon supposed he wasn’t much better, but he was a lot more discerning.

“You haven’t even said a word to her.”

“I don’t need to. You just know these things. I’m gonna go over and talk to her. Come and be my wingman.”

Jon raised an eyebrow, “Why do I need to come with you?”

“Because she’s sitting with a friend. You know girls never leave their friends alone at bars. I need you to talk to her friend while I talk to her.”

“Robb, you know I’m shit at talking to girls.” It was true. Ygritte had been the one to approach him when they had started dating, and before that, Jon had an abysmal track record when it came to talking to girls. Especially exceptionally pretty ones like Robb’s dream girl’s darker haired friend.

He was far from being as smooth as Robb, or even Theon, when it came to women.

Jon was the kind of person who was very quiet and awkward with people until he got to know them well. It took almost a month for him to be able to speak like a normal human being around Ygritte, and that was even helped by the fact that she was so blunt and honest and constantly teased him.

He didn’t do so well with strangers.

“You don’t need to ask her about her life history, just make small talk. Come on Jon, please!”

“Fine,” Jon sighed, and had to hurry to catch up as his brother almost immediately made his way over to the two girls at the bar.

Jon stood there awkwardly while Robb and the girl spent a few moments flirting before heading over to the pool tables.

He begrudgingly took a seat beside the darker haired girl and stared down at the bar in awkward silence.

He really hated Robb right now.

He had no idea how to start a conversation with this girl. And she didn’t seem particularly eager to start one with him either.

She was sipping some sort of mixed drink and looking everywhere except at him.

He wasn’t particularly surprised though.

Out of the two of them, Robb had always had buckets more success with girls. This girl was probably wishing that she was the one playing pool with Robb instead of being stuck here with him.

Eventually the girl turned to him and introduced herself to him, seemingly wanting to reduce the awkwardness between them.

“Hi I’m Alayne,” She offered her hand for a handshake and after taking a few seconds to process that she was actually talking to him, he shook it, slightly embarrassed at himself.

“Jon.”

Alayne was an almost startlingly beautiful girl, her dark hair contrasting nicely with her pale skin and her bright blue eyes adding a striking pop of color. Her hand was soft, warm and small as he took it into his, and he awkwardly dropped it after a few seconds of shaking. He could tell even while she was sitting that she was fairly tall and thin too, and her outfit complimented this, her tight shirt and jeans accentuating all of her features.

She looked like a model. She may well have been too. King’s Landing wasn’t exactly lacking in models. The only other place in the country that maybe had more was Dorne.

He had no idea how to interact with a girl like this.

He decided to attempt conversation anyway. Robb would kill him if she asked her friend to leave early because she was bored.

“Are you a model?” He blurted out the words before he could think them through and then immediately regretted them.

Alayne’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Is that a pick up line?”

Oh great now she thought he was hitting on her. This could only end with her regarding him with either pity or derision. Girls like her never went for him.

Jon turned red. “Ah… no, I just meant um… what I’m trying to say… I would never hit on you.”

Alayne’s expression turned hurt and Jon wanted to punch himself in the face.

“That came out wrong. I just mean… you’re very attractive! I.. um..”

Thankfully she interrupted him before he could dig himself a deeper hole, “I’m a student at KLU. And… thank you.” She gave him a shy smile and seemed to be blushing a little, which confused him. He had expected her reaction to his word vomit to be closer to anger or annoyance.

“What do you study?” He asked. Maybe this would turn out fine after all. He could talk about school.

“Nothing yet. I’m a freshman. I start on Monday.” She finished off her drink before turning fully to him. “What about you?”

“I’m a psychology doctoral candidate. Monday is my first day too.”

Her eyes widened in surprise when he mentioned he was working on a PhD.

“Wow, you must be really smart.”

“Oh.. uh not really.” Robb always told him that he sucked at accepting compliments. He was starting to believe him.

“I’m sure you’re just being modest,” Alayne smiled.

Jon was in panic mode. His initial judgment of her character had been incorrect, which meant that not only was she pretty, but she was also really nice. She was obviously feeling sorry for him about the way he’d embarrassed himself a few moments ago and was trying to be sweet to him. He did not know how to deal with this.

“Do you want another drink?” He gestured towards her empty glass but she shook her head.

“Oh..um.. no, I probably shouldn’t.”

She probably thought that he was trying to get her drunk now or something. Jon was spectacularly bad at this.

For a while they sat in awkward silence again.

Robb had told him to just make small talk. What even counted as small talk? He was pretty sure that asking about the weather was scraping the bottom of the barrel even for him.

Instead he decided to ask, “What about your friend? What is she studying?”

A weird expression came over Alayne’s face. “Margaery?”

“Yeah.” He figured since he had already made such a fool of himself he could at least learn some more about Robb’s supposed dream girl, maybe help his brother out.

“I’m not sure. She’s my new roommate, I just met her today.”

“So you don’t know her too well?” He supposed he wouldn’t be able to get any information for Robb after all.

“No.” Her tone of voice seemed to have become closed off, and the atmosphere between them was even more awkward than before.

He was probably boring this poor girl to tears. She was probably thinking of ways to politely leave.

Jon called the bartender over and ordered a beer. Maybe if he had something else to occupy his time, he would stop putting his foot in his mouth.

They spent another few moments in silence with Jon drinking his beer and Alayne glancing over at Robb and Margaery.

She was probably wishing that she and Margaery could switch places.

Jon decided to make one last attempt at conversation. He swiveled his bar chair around to face her once again.

Unfortunately, his grip on the beer in his hand wasn’t as solid as he had assumed, and the motion of him turning caused some of the beer to splash out of the glass and on to Alayne.

She yelped in surprise and stood up, immediately trying to wipe the liquid off of her shirt.

“Oh fuck I am so sorry!” Jon grabbed some paper towels and awkwardly attempted to help her dry herself before realizing that she may misconstrue his actions, and probably didn’t want him touching her either. “Um…”

Alayne was blushing like crazy and just when Jon thought the situation couldn’t get any more awkward, Robb and Margaery came over, clearly drawn by the commotion.

“What’s going on over here?” Margaery questioned.

“I’m ready to leave now,” Alayne stated to her friend. Margaery glanced between them before nodding her acquiescence. She exchanged numbers with Robb and then the two girls left the bar, Alayne never sparing Jon a second glance. He didn’t think any conversation he’d had with a girl had ever gone worse than that.

Robb turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

“Dude, what the fuck?”

Jon simply groaned and placed his head in his hands.

 

 

**ALAYNE**

Margaery questioned her as soon as they were safely in the back of the cab.

“What on earth happened in there?”

Alayne sighed, “Well I made a complete fool of myself, and your see through shirt became even more see through. Sorry for ruining it by the way.”

“Don’t worry about the shirt,” Margaery waved it off easily, “How did you make a fool of yourself? It looked like you guys were getting on pretty well from where we were standing.”

Alayne shook her head, “I don’t know how to talk to guys. I kept making him feel awkward. And then I felt awkward.”

Alayne had realized pretty quickly that he wasn’t at all interested in her, and although he seemed like a nice guy and had tried to backtrack about it, she wasn’t particularly surprised. Her later realization that, like his brother, he was also interested in Margaery shouldn’t have really surprised her either.

She wasn’t as worldly or as attractive as Margaery, so of course a hot older guy wouldn’t prefer her.

And her conversation skills were seriously lacking too. Fool’s heart made talking to guys look so easy. She had tried to channel Jonquil’s confidence but had failed miserably.

“Talking to guys is only awkward if you let it be. Don’t think of him as a stranger. Imagine that he’s a guy that you’re already close to, and talk to him like that. Soon enough you will be close to him,” Margaery winked.

Alayne doubted this advice would work for her. The only guy she was close to was her father, and she was pretty sure that was not what Margaery was talking about.

“I don’t really… have any experience with guys,” she admitted shyly.

Margaery gave her a surprised look. “None at all?”

Alayne shook her head. “I was homeschooled, remember? I never really had a chance to meet any.”

“You’ve never dated or kissed a guy or done anything?”

“I’ve barely even spoken to a guy until tonight. And we both know how well that turned out,” she sighed sullenly and stared down at her lap.

Even if she had the chance to meet guys, she doubted that father would approve of her dating. He’d always told her that most guys were only after one thing and weren’t worth her time. She’d thought that he was wrong, and had always secretly wanted her own Florian and Jonquil romance, but she was beginning to realize more and more than father truly was rarely wrong.

“Why didn’t you tell me? I would have helped you!”

Alayne looked up at her roommate. “Really?”

“Of course! Flirting is an art form, and I consider myself an artist,” Margaery smirked, “Don’t worry Alayne, I’m going to transform you into a femme fatale.”

Alayne doubted it, but she appreciated the sentiment. “Thank you.”

“So I suppose that the two of you are never going to double date with Robb and I?”

Alayne’s horrified look was the only necessary answer. Margaery burst out laughing.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next morning they jumped right into their orientation activities.

The campus was even more beautiful than she remembered, and all of the students she encountered were unfailingly nice too.

Margaery already seemed to have quickly made close friends with almost every single person that she met. Alayne wasn’t having as easy a time, but she’d also met several nice people, including a girl called Mya, who was also from the Vale.

Currently, there was a break in their busy orientation schedule and she and Margaery were in their dorm room.

“I’m probably going to drive over to help Loras with his apartment for a little, and then come back later for the afternoon activities. Do you want to come with?”

Hanging out with the Tyrells again sounded wonderful, and she would have jumped on the opportunity if she didn’t already have plans.

“I can’t, I’m meeting up with my father for a late lunch.”

Margaery perked up in interested at the mention of her father.

“Is it like a father-daughter thing or could I tag along?” She questioned with a smirk and Alayne laughed.

“What happened to helping Loras?”

“Loras would understand.”

Alayne knew that in all likelihood, father would want to meet her roommate soon, but he also liked things to be meticulously planned rather than last minute.

“Maybe next time Marg.”

“You’re no fun,” Margaery joked but she gave her an easy smile and a wink, “Tell him about me though, okay? I plan to be your future step mother one day.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Father took her to a small out of the way restaurant for lunch and began inquiring about her experience as soon as they had placed their orders.

“How are you liking the school so far?”

“It’s amazing father!” Alayne beamed. “I think I’m going to like it here a lot. Thank you so much for letting me go here. I have my advising session tomorrow where I’ll select my classes. I brought the course catalog with me so that you can help me choose later.”

Father simply nodded. “And what about your roommate? It’s not too late for you to come and stay with me at the penthouse you know.”

“No, she’s great too. Her name is Margaery Tyrell.” She knew that father would recognize the last name. He always talked to her about how important it was to know all of the old families in Westeros.

“The Tyrells are a good family. They’ve had some… scandals in the past few years though. I’ll have to judge myself whether she’s suitable company for you.”

Alayne panicked. “She’s suitable father I promise! She’s been so nice to me, and she’s helped me settle in and she took me out and…um…” Alayne stopped herself before she admitted that her new friend had taken her to Flea Bottom. She already knew how that would end.

Father was never one to miss anything though. “Where did she take you?”

“Oh…um… just around some places in King’s Landing.” Alayne had never lied to father before and she felt terrible about it, but she knew that it needed to be done.

He regarded her for a few moments and she wasn’t sure whether or not he believed her, but eventually he simply shook his head.

“I trust your judgment sweetling. I know that I’ve raised you to only make all of the best decisions.”

Alayne felt worse.

“I know that I’m… strict, but you must know that I am the way I am because I worry about you. I only want what’s best for you, for us and for our future.”

Alayne silently vowed to herself that from now on she would try to avoid doing things that she knew father wouldn’t approve of. He did so much for her, adopted her when nobody else wanted her, taught her everything she needed to secure her future. He didn’t deserve to have her lie to him.

Father always talked about his Plan for their future together, for them to one day work together as father and daughter and take the Westerosi business scene by storm, and she’d never wanted anything more.

She was allowing the trappings of King’s Landing to distract her, but she wouldn’t anymore. She, of course, would maintain her friendship with Margaery but would hopefully be able to discourage any further trips into Flea Bottom. As soon as school started that would be her main priority.

“I know father. And I promise you that I won’t let you down.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I pinched a nerve earlier this week which has caused numbness and tingling in one of my hands and I've been advised to avoid using it as much as possible. I already had this mostly written, but I type very slowly one-handed, so the next chapter may take a couple days longer than usual for me to get done. I will try my best to get it up by the end of next week though.


	7. Advising

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Professor Lannister discusses a student

**Tyrion**

If there was anything that Tyrion had learned after 3 years of teaching at KLU, it was that there were two specific weeks stood out as the worst of the year: Finals week and Orientation.

Finals week was like a trip to the seven hells for obvious reasons—grading hundreds of exams in a short period of time _and_ having to calculate final grades _and_ dealing with students making last minute efforts to salvage their GPA—but Tyrion’s hate for Orientation was singular and unrivaled.

As part of his job description, he was required to act as an advisor to students—something that professors with tenure got out of—which meant he had to deal with hordes of nervous freshman freaking out all day, when he would rather have been doing literally anything else.

Tyrion knew that he was a difficult professor—he was a tough grader and he expected a lot from his students—and that he didn’t have the best of reputations. However, he was sure that this was also in part to do with the fact that he was a dwarf, and sometimes still felt like he was fighting to earn the respect of his students despite the fact that he was one of the leading minds in his field. Because of these things, his new students often came into their advising sessions already terrified of him, which did not make his job any easier.

Already today he had seen more than 20 students and he still had more than 20 more left to see.

He sighed and pulled out the secret bottle of wine he kept hidden under his desk and poured himself a generous glass.

Technically, he was not supposed to have alcohol on campus, but this was an over one hundred year old bottle of Dornish red—practically a historical artifact, and therefore relevant to his field of study. At least that was his story if he was ever questioned about it.

He quickly attempted to hide his glass when he heard a sharp knock on the door, but relaxed a moment later when his elder brother walked into his office without waiting for permission.

“Jaime,” he admonished, “I could have been with a student.”

“I didn’t hear the sounds of dreams being crushed so I figured you weren’t.” Jaime flopped into the seat opposite Tyrion and helped himself to a glass of the expensive wine.

Tyrion considered pointing out the wine’s vintage and how difficult it was to acquire but realized that Jaime likely wouldn’t care. Jaime couldn’t tell the difference between wine that cost ten dragons and wine that cost five hundred.

“What brings you here today?”

“Father and Cersei are driving me mad,” Jaime groaned. “When Father appointed me C.E.O of the King’s Landing Office of Casterly, I thought that meant he would actually allow me to run it. If I knew that he was going to appoint uncle Kevan interim C.E.O. of the Lannisport office just so that he could follow me here to look over my shoulder and constantly criticize every single decision that I make, I would have taken his offer and told him exactly where to shove it.”

Jaime would never actually have told their father that. As much as he complained about him, Tyrion knew that he’d rarely actually gone against their father’s wishes; Jaime had followed father’s plan for his life almost perfectly—the only thing missing was a wife.

Tyrion was the black sheep of the family, the one that had gone against the grain, but then he’d almost had no choice. He wasn’t a golden child like Jaime and Cersei so father didn’t even object to much when he announced that he didn’t want to work at Casterly and decided to get a PhD in History instead.

If Jaime had tried to pull something like that, it would have been a different story.

“And Cersei!” Jaime continued, “She doesn’t even work for Casterly, but you couldn’t tell from the way she goes on.”

Although Tyrion and Cersei had lived in the same city as each other for years now, he rarely saw his older sister who had despised him all his life. However, as soon as Jaime moved to King’s Landing she made it her life mission to be constantly by his side, something that Jaime initially had not complained about.

Tyrion wasn’t surprised. His siblings had always been… close. But when their father had pressured Cersei into marrying Robert Baratheon all those years ago in an effort to secure a lasting business alliance between two mogul empires, the distance between Lannisport and King’s Landing had definitely had an effect on the golden twin’s… bond.

In fact, Tyrion was half convinced that the only reason Jaime had even worked so hard the past few years was so that his father would allow him to head the King’s Landing office. He loved his big brother but he would be the first to admit that Jaime wasn’t always the most motivated when it came to their family business.

When they were younger, Tyrion had been the one who made it his goal to learn everything there was to know about Casterly, mostly because he wanted to both make his father proud and prove him wrong. However, when he realized that his father would give Casterly to Jaime no matter what, he gave up and decided to put all of his focus into his other passions: History, Wine and Sex.

“Perhaps Cersei is finding new ways to occupy her time now that her favorite child is flying the nest?”

Tyrion was less than thrilled when he found out that his nephew would be attending KLU this year, but not in the least surprised. Joffery’s grades and test results were atrocious but he was part of two of the most prestigious families in Westeros—there was no way he wouldn’t have gotten in.

Joffery was Cersei’s golden child—her first born, her perfect boy—but to everyone else he was a little shit. Tyrion knew he would spend a large chunk of his time this year cleaning up after Joffery’s mistakes.

Jaime snorted. “He’s going to University in the same city that she lives in. He’s still living at home for fuck’s sake!”

“Well Gods forbid he lives in the dorms among the _common_ people. Not when he could be sitting pretty in his father’s mansion.”

Jaime rolled his eyes at the mention of Robert Baratheon. He was not their brother-in-law’s biggest fan, for obvious reasons.

“ _He’s_ been pissing Cersei off more than usual lately too. The longer they’re married, the less he tries to hide his affairs and his drinking.”

“Let’s not pretend our dear sister hasn’t done her fair share of both of those things,” Tyrion retorted sardonically.

Jaime gave him a dark look before changing the subject.

“Anyway, I need your help with Casterly.”

Tyrion sighed. “How did I know that was where this was leading?”

“I just need you to go over some numbers with me, and help me with some proposals. You have a better head for that kind of stuff! And besides, don’t you want to help me get father off my back? The faster I get better at my job, the faster he goes back to Lannisport and leaves us all in peace,” Jaime pointed out.

Their father had been particularly unbearable since coming to King’s Landing. Tyrion had gotten too used to only seeing the man every couple of months. Now he insisted they have a family dinner every week; an opportunity he used to criticize all of their life choices, question their motives, express his disappointment in them, and--when he was feeling particularly paranoid-- accuse them of trying to kill him so that they could take over Casterly and waste all of his money.

“That _would_ be nice. What exactly do you need help with?”

“Well, father appointed Littlefinger C.F.O. so I don’t have to deal with most of the financial stuff—thank the gods—but there are a few money things that fall under my jurisdiction. And you know I’m terrible with money.”

Jaime’s issue wasn’t so much that he was terrible with money but that he’d always had so much of it that he never learned how to manage it. Tywin had refused to pay for any more of Tyrion’s schooling after he earned his bachelors’ degree, as he didn’t think further school was necessary, so Tyrion had learned to pay his own way pretty quickly. And although he still had his indulgences—like fine wines and expensive women—he was generally much more vigilant about money than both of his siblings combined.

“I heard about that. I never thought that father would trust Littlefinger for a job like that.”

Jaime shrugged. “The man is good at what he does.”

“Did you know that he has a daughter?”

The look of shock on Jaime’s face said it all.

Tyrion recalled his own surprised when he had seen the name ‘Alayne Baelish’ on his roster of students that he needed to advise. At first he had considered that it may have just been a coincidence, but Baelish was not a common Westerosi name, so he pulled up her file, and sure enough, listed under the parents section was the name ‘Petyr Baelish’.

There was a blank space where there should have been a mother’s name.

This was even more curious.

“Littlefinger procreated? How did that happen?”

“I’m less surprised he procreated and more surprised he kept the child.” Littlefinger did not have a wife or long term girlfriend, and Tyrion didn’t think that he ever had. And he did not seem like the kind of man to allow accidents to happen in one night stands or short term relationships. And if they did, Tyrion would have thought he would have chosen to take care of them in a different way.

“How do you know all of this?”

“His daughter is one of my new students. I just advised her a couple of hours ago.”

Students at KLU were not required to select an official major until the beginning of their second year, but freshman had to indicate three areas of interest on their application in order of preference and they were paired with advisors based on this.

Of course, the courses like Business, Political Science, Pre-medicine and Pre-Law were the most popular, so students who chose these as their first option were often placed with an advisor from their second or third option.

Most of the students that Tyrion advised did not consider History to be their first option, which usually only served to add to his frustration with them.

Alayne had chosen Political Science as her first interest, Business as her second, and History as her third, but it was evident fairly soon after he begun speaking with her that she was a true history buff.

She was one of the few people ever to almost perfectly guess the dating and origin of his most prized possession—a tapestry from the age of heroes that he hung behind his desk.

She had noticed it almost immediately when she entered the office and they’d ended up having a fascinating conversation about the age of heroes that lasted almost thirty minutes—he’d had to postpone his next meeting.

“Was she just like a mini female Littlefinger?”

“Actually, no. She was very intelligent, well-mannered, and nice.”

Tyrion didn’t know what he had been expecting from Littlefinger’s child, but that was not it. Littlefinger himself was of course immensely intelligent, and polite to a fault, but everything he did felt disingenuous. Tyrion did not get that sense from his daughter.

When he looked up her records, he’d seen her test scores, so he wasn’t surprised that she was intelligent, but he hadn’t expected to enjoy conversation with her as much as he did. She seemed genuinely passionate about history, a rare thing in young people these days, and he hoped that he could encourage her to pursue it more singularly.

He had already convinced her to take two history classes this semester instead of the one she planned. Along with that she had signed up for Introduction to Westerosi Political Systems, as she had indicated interest in political science which he couldn’t ignore, and an Ancient Essosi literature class, which he thought would help her with her history. KLU encouraged advisors to also tell their students to consider taking a class in a field that was completely different from any of their interests in order to foster a wider breadth of learning, and so she had also decided to take an Introductory psychology class.

Five classes was a heavy load for a first time student, but he was fairly confident already that she could pull it off with flying colors.

“I can’t imagine Littlefinger raising a child,” Jaime shuddered. “It was probably more like training a minion to help him take over the world.”

Tyrion laughed, “That’s probably exactly how he approached child rearing.”

Jaime poured himself another glass of wine. “Now enough of Littlefinger, back to my problems. You need to help me before your next appointment.”

Tyrion groaned and lamented about his wine, but he knew he would help his brother in any way that he could. He would always help Jaime.

As he worked though, he couldn’t help but wonder more about the fact that Littlefinger had for some reason decided to keep the existence of his child secret for so many years—he’d always been a private man, but didn’t all proud parents mention their children at some point? And judging by his daughter’s achievements, he definitely had a lot to be proud about.

All that Tyrion knew was that Alayne Baelish would definitely be the student to keep an eye on this year.

 

 

**JON**

Jon was not having a good day.

Robb hadn’t stopped talking about Margaery for two days straight, and it turned out that Theon had convinced not one, but two of the girls he was talking with to go home with him that night, so Robb insisted that Jon give him twenty dragons instead of ten _and_ Theon hadn’t stopped bragging about it since.

“Margaery and I have a date tonight. What do you think I should wear? Where should I take her? I don’t want to look like I’m trying too hard. But her family has a restaurant empire so I can’t take her some place to eat that isn’t fancy at all. Is dinner too cliché for a first date?”

Jon groaned.

“Robb, it doesn’t matter where you take her, she’s going to love it. Everything will be fine.”

Robb always got like this when before dates, even thought Jon was sure he’d never actually had a date go badly in his entire life. Jon could not say the same about himself.

“You say that, but you don’t know that.”

“Take her to your bedroom,” Theon suggested with a wicked grin. “She would enjoy that.”

“You are a terrible person,” Robb informed his best friend.

“That’s why we’re friends. You’re too good and I’m not at all. We balance each other out.”

Jon snorted but decided not to comment on Theon practically admitting he was a bad influence on Robb. That was a can of worms that he did not want to open.

Robb and Theon begun to have a joking argument about their friendship and Jon promptly tuned them out.

It was impossible to be raised by Ned Stark and not become good and honest almost to a fault, and their fathers influence was evident in both Robb and Jon’s personalities, but Robb had always been the more influenced by their peers.

His view on women and relationships was 100% from their father though. He had raised them both to treat women with nothing but respect and they both got their idealistic views about marriage and settling down from him too. Ned married his college sweetheart when they were both fairly young, and Jon knew that Robb wanted a relationship like his parents someday.

Jon wasn’t so sure that was _exactly_ what he wanted.

His own existence was proof that there was no such thing as a perfect relationship, but he hoped that one day he could find a girl he loved and they could find something that worked for them.

Although that would be difficult considering his complete inability to communicate with the opposite sex.

He was still summarily embarrassed about his interactions with Alayne the other night.

When he’d told them exactly what had happened, Robb had been sympathetic and Theon had been unbearable. Jon’s lack of game was often the subject of Theon’s teasing.

Jon himself just felt mortified.

He was only comforted by the fact that a girl like that would have never been into him anyway, so it wasn’t like spilling his beer all over her ruined his chances as he likely never had one in the first place.

He was happy for Robb and Margaery and hoped that their date went well, but he also hoped that if something blossomed between them he wouldn’t be forced to spend too much time with her roommate.

Luckily, school would be starting in two days. He would be busy with classes and his TA position; he really wouldn’t have time to focus on girls.

In fact, he wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t even see her again anytime soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this was kind of a filler. When I planned this story I didn't realize how anal I would be about world building, so it's taking a while to get to the actual meat of the story. This is likely going to end up being a fairly long story (I'm currently predicting around 50 chapters) but it should begin to start moving more quickly in the next couple of chapters. Thanks for the support as always!


	8. Brune's Beans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The KLU semester officially begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still exist! And so does this story. Sorry for the long wait. Real life got in the way for a while.

**ALAYNE**

Alayne leisurely made her way across campus back to her dorm room after attending her first official college class.

 Margaery thought that she was crazy for choosing to take an 8am history class, but Alayne had been eager to take Dr. Lannister’s ‘A brief introduction to the age of heroes’ class, and Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8am was the only time that he offered it.

Dr. Lannister had intrigued her when she’d first met him at her advising appointment. Online reviews from other students indicated that he was rude and purposefully difficult, and the general consensus was that he was a professor to be avoided. However, Alayne had found him to be both kind and genuinely interested in her pursuit of knowledge during their conversation, and she had subsequently signed up for two of his classes.

His lecture style this morning had also proved to be engaging, although he had also made it very clear that he expected a lot from his students.

He’d already assigned a 5 page essay that was due next Monday.

Alayne was already running through topic ideas in her mind as she walked into her dorm room.

Margaery was awake and dressed and sitting at her desk sorting through her things. Her first class of the day didn’t start until 10 am, and it was an Essosi literature class that Alayne was also in, so they had agreed to walk there together.

Margaery was aiming to major in journalism, and so she had signed up for two writing courses, a literature course and a photography course this semester.

Ancient Essosi literature was the only class that they had in common.

She turned around with a smile as she heard Alayne walk in.

“Hey girl, how was early morning torture?”

“Not torture at all, despite what you seem to think,” Alayne replied with a smile.

Margaery pulled a face. “Learning about dead people at the ass crack of dawn? Torture.”

“They’re hardly just any old dead people. It was called the Age of Heroes for a reason.”

“It doesn’t matter how much you try to convince me, my stance will always be that History is in the past for a reason,” Margaery stated emphatically. “Anyway Loras just texted me, he says he’s going to show us the best place on campus to eat when we all have lunch today.”

“Great! I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.”

Alayne was also looking forward to seeing Margaery’s brother again. His dry wit paired perfectly with Margaery’s blunt sarcasm, and she doubted that there would ever be a dull moment when she was around both members of the brother sister duo.

“Well,” Margaery glanced at the rose shaped clock on her wall, “We might as well start making a way to class. The English building is on the other side of campus.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“I didn’t think that my Valyrian was that rusty,” Margaery groaned.

They had just gotten out of their literature class and were sitting in on of KLU’s many cafeterias waiting for Loras.

“I always thought I had a pretty extensive knowledge of Valyrian, but I am not looking forward to reading a thousand year old, 500 page novel written entirely in High Valyrian by midterms.”

“We’re definitely going to have to work on that together. I didn’t think I would already be planning library trips on the first day.”

“Want some advice?” Loras appeared out of nowhere, startling them both as he pulled a chair up to the small table they had managed to secure in the busy room. “Don’t study in the library. The facilities are cool, but the librarians are bitches. You’re better off studying in your room or finding somewhere else near campus.”

“Seven Hells Loras, are you trying to give me a heart attack? I’m too young to die.”

“Oh please, practically every head in the room turned when I walked in. It’s not my fault that you’re oblivious to my charm.”

“I’m your sister,” She pointed out.

“That doesn’t stop some people,” He turned and gave Alayne his signature smirk, “What about you Alayne? You didn’t notice my beautiful face?”

“Um-“

Margaery snorted. “Leave the poor girl alone Loras. Besides, you’re only beautiful because you look like me.”

“I’m older, so you look like me!”

Alayne quietly snickered at their antics as they argued among themselves about who was more attractive and why. It was at times like these that she wished that she had grown up with a sibling. Although she knew that would have meant sharing her father and she didn’t know how she felt about that.

Thinking about father made her suddenly remember something, and she decided to interrupt the bickering siblings.

“Marg, my father has invited you to have lunch with us on Friday.” They had been discussing their weekend plans and had agreed that Alayne’s roommate could join them for lunch before Alayne headed off to the penthouse for the weekend.

“Really?! I finally get to meet him! What should I wear? What’s his favorite color?”

Alayne laughed and Loras rolled his eyes at his little sister.

“Didn’t you just spend all weekend blowing up my phone with texts about that guy you met at that bar?”

“Robb would understand,” Margaery joked. “But seriously, if Alayne is to be believed, daddy dearest is pretty much celibate. And Robb has been practically perfect so far, so he has nothing at all to worry about.”

Loras raised an eyebrow. “One date and you’re already using the word perfect? Damn.”

“Well, first of all, he is gorgeous. Right Alayne?” Margaery waited for Alayne to nod her agreement to her assertions before continuing. “And he ticks all of my other boxes too. He’s older, smart, driven, and funny. I only need one date to know whether somebody is my type.”

“I only need one night to tell if somebody is my type,” Loras quipped.

Margaery laughed but said, “And this is why we never go to Loras for guy advice Alayne.”

“I would need to find a guy before any advice would be necessary,” She sighed.

“Finding a guy should not be hard you at all,” Loras proclaimed with a wave of his hand. “My fraternity is having a party on Thursday. You are both invited of course. There’ll be plenty of guys there.”

“Probably _not_ the kind of guys you want for your first relationship,” Margaery warned. “But of course we will be there!”

“On a Thursday?” Alayne questioned worriedly. She didn’t know how wise it was to go to a party on Thursday night when she had an 8am history class on Friday.

“Thursday has proven to be the best day to throw frat parties. Everyone goes out on Friday and Saturday, so less people will come. And most of us purposefully don’t take classes on Friday just so that we can party on Thursday.”

“You have to go to at least one frat party Alayne, it’s an integral part of the college experience. We can go to this first one, but we don’t have to stay long. I know you have to wake up early on Friday for your tri-weekly torture.”

“Well I suppose it could be fun.”

“It will definitely be fun.” Loras stated, “And hey, you can bring Mr. Perfect, Marg. The best indication of a guy’s character is how he behaves when he’s drunk.”

“You would know best Lor.”

“Yes I would,” Loras winked, “Anyway, why are we just sitting here? Why aren’t we eating?”

“We were waiting for you,” Alayne said with a surreptitious glance at her watch. She still had over an hour and a half before her next class, psychology at 1:30. Margaery’s next class wasn’t until 3, but she had no idea what Loras’ schedule was like.

“Well, I’m here now ladies,” He stood up and offered out an arm for each Margaery and Alayne, “Let me introduce you to the most orgasmic food on campus.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When Alayne entered the lecture hall that her psychology class was held in, it was already almost full with students. Luckily, Alys Karstark, a girl who lived in Visenya house with her had saved a seat for her near the front of the hall.

She gave Alys a thankful smile as she slid into the seat next to her.

“Thanks for saving me a seat!”

“No problem,” Alys replied kindly, “I didn’t think that there would be so many people taking this class! I’m glad to have a familiar face.”

“I’ve heard that Dr. Qyburn is a very good professor. Crazy, but good.”                    

Dr. Qyburn had once been a medical doctor as well as holding a PhD, and had been applauded as one of the most promising MD-PhD candidates to come out of the citadel in years. He made tremendous discoveries in the fields of neuroscience and psychology and was a celebrated brain surgeon. However, a few years ago there had been an accident of some sort in his operating room which had created scrutiny of his practices and eventually led to the suspension of his license to practice medicine. He subsequently turned to teaching instead, although it was said that he appealed the medical board about the reinstatement of his license whenever he could.

However, his teaching record at KLU was spotless, so far. The only complaints against him were that he was a few stags short of a dragon, but the general consensus was his vast knowledge made up for that. He was also known for giving fairly easy tests.

“So is this your first class today?”

Alayne shook her head. “Third.”

“Wow I do not envy you.”

“It’s not so bad.” She had actually been excited about the challenge of taking five classes. That meant that she had to take three on M/W/F and two on T/Th, unlike many of the other freshman she had met who weren’t taking more than two a day. The exception of course being science majors, who also had labs. “I just need to figure out a study schedule and a good place to study or I’m going to drown in work.”

“There’s this little coffee shop not far from campus called Brune’s Beans. It has this really cool basement study space. It’s on the university shuttle’s route too.”

“Really? Thanks, I’ll check it out.”

Their conversation was cut short by the arrival of professor Qyburn.

The noise level in the hall trickled down to silence as he stood up at the podium in the front.

“Welcome to introduction to psychology. This semester I will be attempting to teach you the basic principles, theories and applications of modern psychology. The material in this course is not difficult, but you will need to keep up with the weekly assigned readings. There will be no graded homework for this course; all of your grades will come from exams and essays. Over the course of the semester you will have two essays and four exams including the final. Essays are worth 10% of your grade each, and tests are worth 20%.” Dr. Qyburn spewed his opening speech while barely taking a pause to breathe, and Alayne realized she would definitely have to pay extreme attention to him if this was how he spoke all the time. “For this semester I will have a teaching assistant who will help me grade your essays and also hold weekly review sessions on Wednesday evenings to help keep you up to date on the material. If you need to aid outside of my office hours, which are posted on the online syllabus, you can email the TA. This is Jon Stark and he will be your TA for the rest of the semester.” Dr. Qyburn gestured to a guy in the front row who stood up and turned around to face the class, giving them a small smile and awkward wave.

Alayne was mortified when she realized who it was.

Jon her TA was also Jon from the Rusty Keep.

Jon who was brothers with Margaery’s Mr. Perfect.

Jon who had liked Margaery more than her and who had spilled beer on her in his haste to escape her boring conversation.

She felt her face turning red.

Dr. Qyburn continued speaking about the study sessions that Jon would be holding but Alayne was barely listening.

Alys leaned over to Alayne and whispered, “Seven hells, our TA is _hot_! I will definitely be attending every single study session whether I need it or not.”

Alayne could only manage a weak smile in return.

She definitely would not be attending _any_ of the study sessions, whether she needed it or not.

**JON**

Jon’s first week as a grad student had been progressing pretty well so far.

He was the youngest candidate in his program, but the others were all friendly and easy to get along with, and his youth in comparison just made him more eager to prove himself and do well.

The professors he was working under were all celebrated researchers in the field and he was definitely excited to learn from them.

The workload from his classes was both extensive and difficult. He wouldn’t have a lot of free time this semester, but he thought that he could handle it.

His TA job, however, may prove to be a little more interesting, or at least embarrassing than he initially assumed.

When he stood up in the introductory psychology class and turned around to face the students, his eyes had immediately been drawn to a familiar face.

He should have known that assuming that he would never see Alayne again was unrealistic.

He had put what he was now referring to as the ‘bar incident’ out of his mind until he saw her again.

He had been secretly relieved when she hadn’t shown up for the TA study session on Wednesday evening.

Out of the 100 students in the class, only 35 had shown up for his sessions, but Dr. Qyburn had told him to pretty much expect this.

It was only the first week and they had only had two classes, so there currently wasn’t too much information to review.

When the semester really got underway, it was likely he would have more than half the class attending his sessions.

He felt a little bad about it, but he secretly hoped that Alayne would not show up at any of the sessions. Just thinking about her made him feel embarrassed all over again.

Currently, it was Thursday afternoon, and he was done for the day, which meant that for the first time all week he had enough time to take his work and go and study at the little coffee shop that he had found before the semester began.

He had been studying at the apartment the past couple of days, just because he had been leaving campus so late, with classes, and research and his TA session all taking up so much time, but Theon liked to blast death metal music, and when Jon complained about it, he just played it louder.

Hopefully today he would have a chance to get a significant amount of work done.

He walked into Brune’s Beans and ordered his usual- black coffee no sugar- before heading down to the basement to look for a table.

It was a lot busier than it had been when he had come here before the semester started. He had greatly underestimated college students’ love of hipster coffee shops.

There were practically no empty tables that he could see.

Jon was just beginning to give up hope when he spotted a table that only had one person at it near the back wall.

However, that person was Alayne.

On the one hand, it would be easier to ask to share a table with somebody he already knew rather than asking a stranger, especially because she was sitting at a quieter area of the room.

On the other hand, it would involve speaking to a girl that he had already thoroughly embarrassed himself in front of.

He quarreled with himself for a few moments in his head before he decided to bite the bullet and walk over to the table.

When he reached her, she was concentrating intensely on a textbook that was open in front of her and had yet to notice his presence, so he cleared his throat to get her attention.

Alayne looked up at the sound and her eyes widened in obvious surprise when she saw him.

“Uh- do you mind if I sit here?” He asked running a hand through his hair awkwardly.

She hesitated for a second before replying, “Sure.”

Jon let out a breath that he didn’t know that he was holding and sat down in the seat opposite her and pulled his books out of his bag and put them on the table.

Alayne went back to her work and Jon began with his.

He doesn’t know how long they sat there in awkward silence, each focusing solely on their own work, but occasionally stealing a glance at the other, but it had to have been close to an hour.

He was trying his best to focus on his work, but the general mood between them was a little uncomfortable, which was a little distracting.

Eventually Jon decided to try and break the tension a little.

“So I just wanted to apologize.”

Alayne blinked up at him. “Apologize?”

“For last Thursday, at the rusty keep. I really am sorry about spilling my drink on you.”

“Oh, it’s fine! Really, it’s ok.”

“I feel like it’s not though. And… I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable in any way.”

“Made me uncomfortable? I thought I made _you_ uncomfortable.”

_What?_

“Why would you think that?”

Alayne blushed and shrugged. “I don’t know. That was just the vibe I got.”

Jon’s first thought was that she looked incredibly cute when she blushed but he quickly pushed that out of his mind.

His second thought was that it was crazy that this beautiful girl who he had put his foot in his mouth in front of somehow thought that _she_ had made _him_ feel uncomfortable.

“I think we crossed our wires somehow. How about we both just start again. Hi, I’m Jon Stark.”

“Alayne Baelish,” she smiled and suddenly all of the tension seemed to ebb away.

“So I hope its psychology that you’ve been studying so intently,” he gestured towards the book that was still open in front of her.

“Nope.” She lifted the book so that he could see the cover. “Early Westerosi History.”

He gave her a pitying look. “I’m so sorry.”

Alayne laughed. “I don’t know why everyone hates history so much. It’s amazing.”

“It’s just so boring,” he complained.

“What could possibly be boring about royalty and fighting and family feuds and scandal?”

“Well when you put it that way it sounds like a fun TV show,” he conceded. “But you still could not pay me to study it.”

“Margaery feels the same way,” she shrugged, “I swear she calls me crazy every day for liking it. I can’t really blame her though. I kind of talk about history all the time. It probably gets annoying.”

“Well Robb talks about Margaery all the time and that also gets annoying.”

Alayne laughed again and he got a warm feeling from being able to make her laugh so much.

“Don’t worry Margaery is the same way. Hopefully when they start spending more time with each other, they’ll be annoying around each other, instead of around us.”

“So is history what you want to study?”

Alayne got a conflicted expression on her face at this question. “Well… I’ll probably declare political science as my official major.”

Jon can tell that there’s more to this, but decides not to push it that that moment.

“History and Political Science. How on earth did you end up in a psychology class?”

“Well, my advisor thought that it might be fun and different for me. However, so far, I have no idea what Dr. Qyburn is talking about.”

“Why didn’t you come to the study session? I would have been happy to help,” When Jon realized what he had just admitted he began to backtrack, “I mean, not like I was specifically searching you out at the session or anything, I just happened to notice that you weren’t there you know…”

Alayne gave him a small smile, “Well maybe I’ll go next week. I need all the help I can get.”

Jon didn’t even think it through before throwing out an offer.

“If you ever need any extra help, I would be happy to do it.”

The wide smile she gave him was enough to make him feel like this offer had been the right decision. Individual sessions with students were technically not in his job description, but there were no rules against it either, unless he was charging them for it.

Which he obviously wouldn’t. He would be glad to help Alayne with psychology for free.

He would be glad to help Alayne with a lot of things for free, but that wasn’t going to happen, so he would stick with the psychology.

“Really?”

“Sure,” He nodded, “Just text me whenever you need help and we can set up a time that works for both of us.”

“I don’t have your number,” She pointed out.

“Oh,” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it to her so that she could enter her number, and in turn she passed him her phone. “There,” he said when they were done and had switched back phones, “Now you can text me.”

“Great,” She smiled, “Thanks Jon.”

“No problem.”

Alayne looked down at her watch and then looked up at him with an apologetic expression.

“I was supposed to grab food with Margaery and Loras and I’m late. I have to go, I’m sorry.”

_Who is Loras?_

“It’s fine.”

She stood up and began packing up her things. “Thank you for your offer to help though! I will definitely be taking you up on it.” She gave him one last smile and wave before she left. “Bye Jon, I’m glad we were able to talk again!”

Jon watched Alayne weave through the tables and students and then ascend the stairs back into the main shop before he looked back down at his work.

At least the second meeting had gone a _lot_ better than the first.

**Author's Note:**

> What did you think? Comments would be greatly appreciated, I really want to know how people felt about it, and anything I could do to improve my writing, storytelling, or the format to make it easier and better for you guys. And I currently do not have a beta, so all mistakes are mine and mine alone. Feel free to point them out to me. Thank you for reading!


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